Being Set Free
by DarksideOfTheMoon342
Summary: Sam and Dean chase after a witch and are knocked out cold. Then Castiel shows up and he gets stuck on Earth. What is going on? Story continues after Cas' death, and the laviathins. warning: Destiel Dean/OMC FYI: I do own Shawn and Mia. Do not steal them!
1. Chapter 1

When Dean became conscious the first thing he noticed was a massive headache. He didn't remember ever getting back to the motel, last night. When he opened his bleary eyes, it looked like the same striped wallpaper to him. He tried to think back to the night before. He remembered that they were hunting some sort of witch. His face and chest felt like it was sunburned, and he had heartburn from hell. He wasn't feeling so well. He still couldn't remember.

Suddenly, Cass was right there beside his bed, looking down on him.

"Your awake," he said. Thanks Mr. states-the-obvious.

"I found both you and Sam in a bar, unconcious on the floor. I brought you back here, before the police could be called.. Oh, and I wiped the witnesses' memories."

"Thanks Cass," Dean said, as he tried to slowly sit up, but he quickly realized that his head started spinning as soon as it became even slightly vertical. So, he gave it up as a bad idea, and relaxed back into the bed, staring up at Cass.

"Wait, how did you know we were in trouble," he asked, clearing the whisperiness from his voice.

Cass just shrugged, and wandered over to the mini fridge. He opened it, and pulled out one of Sam's bottled waters. "Here," he said, handing the bottle to Dean. He struggled to get up again.

After a few seconds of watching Dean struggle, Cass decided to help him up. He placed one hand behind his back and gently pulled him all the way into a sitting position, then handed him the water, and backed up, remembering talks about appropriate space.

Dean had felt tingling in his back when Cass had helped him up. He didn't pay it any mind, as he twisted the cap off his drink. When he looked up at Cass, the angel was looking at his right hand with a curious facial expression.

"What's wrong Cass?"

Another shrug, "It is nothing."

Did he feel the tingling sensation when he had touched him through his shirt? Whatever. It was such a stupid thing to dwell on. He looked over at the other bed, and saw that Sam was still unconscious.

"He's still alive, right?"

"Last time I checked."

Dean continued to stare at his brother, thinking that his position didn't look comfortable, at all. He tried pushing his hip sideways, so that he could lay straight on his back, instead of lying at a twisted angle. At least Cass had thought to cover them with blankets. As he uncrossed his brother's legs, Sam groaned. His eyes flickered open in the next minute.

"Welcome back to the word of the living. Water?"

Sam glared up. Dean knew very well that sitting up would be painful, so he did Sam the favor of helping him into a sitting position, before offering a fresh bottle he got from the fridge.

"She got away, didn't she?"

"Unfortunately,"

"How did we get here?"

"Cass," Dean answered, throwing a thumb over his shoulder.

"Thanks, Cass,"

"We have a slight problem," Cass commented.

"Yeah, besides failing our hunt," Dean asked.

"Yes, besides that."

"Yeah, well, what's that?"

"I can't leave"

They both stared at Cass.

"Great, well, are you out of angel juice, or something?"

Cass paused for a moment, thinking, "No, I just can't fly off."

"So, essentially, your wings are clipped," Dean complained, "What the heck could cause that to happen?"

"I don't know."

Those three words were never good coming out of an angel's mouth. It kind of frightened Dean. He knew that Cass was a very busy angel, and rather spend most of his time off somewhere else, fighting other angels. It occured to Dean that maybe this had something to do with that witch they cornered the night before. Maybe she wasn't a witch. Why would a witch possibly want to trap an angel?

"Okay, well, first I need breakfast, and maybe some of that pink stuff or something. Man, does this heartburn suck! Then, we need to hit the books, because I have a feeling that that that thing last night may have been a wolf in witch clothing."

The boys had woken up way late, so most places were serving lunch by then. Dean had no idea what he wanted, so Sam ordered first. He ordered a greek salad, and after a while Dean ordered the same.

"What," Dean asked, when Sam raised a questioning eyebrow, "maybe it'll help with the heartburn."

"And what would you like?" The waitress looked expectingly at Cass.

"Nothing."

The waitress walked off like she was offended that Cass was parking it, without ordering. The Winchesters discussed over their breakfast, the clues to the case, so far. They had come into town because there were a few murders in the area. In fact there had been ten deaths in the past week, all domestic violence or suicides. It seemed that a lot of people were shacking up too. When they had walked into a diner for breakfast, they had noticed that almost every table was filled with couples, and families. You could tell that some relationships were relatively new. The newspapers had said that it seemed that a lot of people in town had been bitten by the love bug. Old high school sweethearts were looking each other up, and new lovers were meeting. The suicides happened when the love wasn't returned, and on occasion there were murders when people found infadelity. They had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with a charib, untill a certain pattern emerged. Everybody who had been affected by the lucky in love spell had gone to the same diner.

They checked to see if it was something in the food, but the things everybody was eating varied. So they started interviewing all the staff. They didn't find anything suspicion on the first round of interviews. They asked if anybody was acting suspiciously, and nothing panned out.

One of the waitresses said, "No, nobody has been acting suspicious. Everybody's great here, especially Mandy." She had waved at Mandy, and the girl smiled back. When they asked around about Mandy, everyone had nothing but nice things to say about her. It was almost as if they worshipped the ground she walked on. They soon found out that Mandy had only been working there for about a week, right when the euphoria stuff started happening. They thought she was a witch putting love charms on people, thinking that she was being helpful, a real Aphrodite.

When Sam, Cass, and Dean had got back to the motel, Dean looked up sirens, again, but it didn't exactly fit. The witch, or whatever she was, had been beautiful enough, but she hadn't been making men fall in love with _her_, she was making people fall in love with each other. The weird thing was that not everyone ganked each other. Quite a few married couples were renewing vows, and some were getting very civilized divorces. It was a mystery. Sam looked up from his computer, a couple hours later, and said "Aphrodite."

"You think it's a greek god?"

"It fits," said Cass, who was watching t.v., "Aphrodite is suppose to be the mother of all sirens. I saw you look that up earlier."

"She doesn't seem evil. Why does she want you trapped, here, Cass?"

"I don't know."

"Can you track her down?"

"No, I'm stuck on foot, same as you guys. She's already skipped town, anyway. I can sense her presence, but only if she's close."

Later, in the evening, Cass did leave to meet with some of his soldiers. Dean felt the need to lay down while he was gone. The heartburn, which had gone during breakfast, was back with a vengeance, and his muscles began to ache.

"Oooh," Dean groaned, "I think I'm coming down with something."

Sam looked over at his brother, worried, as he curled up into a fetal position. "You want me to go get you something for the flu?"

"Yep."

As Sam slipped on his jacket Dean said, "And some pie?"

Sam laughed, "Okay, pie too."

Sam took a long time getting back form the store for medicine, and pie. Once he got out on the road, he got distracted. Some little voice told him to go elsewhere. Cass got back before Sam, and he had to walk back from where ever he was meeting his subordinates. Cass was sweating when he entered the door.

"Angels aren't suppose to get sick." Dean commented.

"I know. One of my soldiers told me that there's something inside me. She can't remove it. I'm guessing that the same taint is in your soul too."

"I'll pass on the cavity search right now though, I'm in enough pain as it is."

"Okay."

"Move over," said Cass, as he approached Dean's bed.

"What? No. Go lie on Sam's bed."

"I said, move over."

"I said no, Cass. Guys don't share beds."

Cass sighed, and asked, "Is your heartburn gone?"

"No," Dean admitted, but his muscle aches were easing a bit, and he was able to straighten out his legs on the bed.

"I have an idea on what this is, but you need to move over, so that I can lie next to you."

"Fine," he permitted, grudgingly as he moved back towards the side next to the wall.

Cass removed his jacket and shoes before hopping onto the bed. He lay down sideways, facing Dean. When he readjusted, for comfort, his arm "accidentally" brushed Deans. When that happened Dean noticed the same tingling sensation from this morning, except it was more intensified. Dean also noticed that his chest pains were noticably better, after the small contact, so he reached out, and touched Cass on the arm. All his pain had gone, so he removed his hand from Cass's bicept.

"That's weird. What's going on?"

"I need to ask you a few questions first," Cass replied.

"Okay... Shoot."

There was a small pause. When the silence continued, Dean realized that he had to clarify his response so that the angel understood.

"I mean that you can ask me your questions, Cass."

"Oh. Thank you for clarifying on the word shoot."

"No problem... So..."

"These questions are going to make you feel uncomfortable, and you might object to them, but I want you to answer them as honestly as you can."

Another pause, as Cass tried to use his words, "You are attracted to the female gender, and the female gender, only, correct?"

"Yes."

Another pause, and then, "I know that you consider me a friend, and claim me as a kind of extended family. Is there anything else that you think of me as?"

"Uh, I guess, I do rely on you too much sometimes. So, I guess that that means that I expect you to protect me. Your my savior. You pulled me out of hell. But that's all... Are you ready to tell me what your thinking, because those are _really _ weird questions."

"Aphrodite is not a true god, of course, but I don't know what she is, to tell you the truth. She is suppose to be a daughter of purgatory, but I don't think that she's only Eve's. Whatever she is, she tagged you with love. I'm not only stuck on earth, but attached to you, Dean."

"Your not saying what I think your saying, right?"

"I can read souls, but not minds. You'll have to give me more information, if you want an answer."

Dean sighed, and said, "Are you saying that Aphrodite shot us with love arrows."

"Not exactly. She's not a cherub. This tagging is suppose to bring out feelings that are already there, or lead you to someone who is a match for you. Aphrodite's powers don't make you feel anything that's not already there."

"But I really don't play for that team," said Dean.

"What team?"

"The male on male stuff, Cass. I don't go for that."

"Well, Aphrodite hit you guys with a hard dose. So it doesn't matter what 'team' you play for. We do have a bond, even if it's just a brother at arms kind of bond. Aphrodite brings people together. That's all. Sam got hit by a high dose too, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was looking for his match right now."

"Instead of getting me my pie, he's out there looking for booty call, in my car?"

"Afraid so."

"How do we reverse this thing, and set you free?"

"There's two ways."

"And they are?"

"We can wait for the love sickness to wear off. If the bond isn't consumated, it fades."

"Consumated? Aw, gross," Dean declare, while he shot out of bed in outrage, "Can't we gank the bitch so her spell dies?"

"No. It's not a spell, exactly. Like I said, she tagged you, and in consequence, me. The bond is already there. The power that's making us sick if we're apart lies in us."

"I'm all for waiting for it to wear off then," said Dean.

Cass got off the bed and stood in front of Dean. He was in his personal space, again. Just as Dean was about to remind Cass about his little social etiquette problem, he felt a hand behind his head. Before he could react, Cass's lips were being crushed into his. Dean shoved him back.

"Get off, man," he shouted.

Before Dean could pull entirely away, he grabbed his hands, and pinned them to his chest. He pulled at his hands, but damn that angel strength, Cass wouldn't let go.

"Let go, man," he growled.

"I can't wait that long," Cass responded.

"How long does it take?"

"Days maybe weeks. I can't wait that long. My people are dropping like flies, and I had the smaller army, to begin with. Untill I find a weapon to win this war with, I am needed to prevent unnecessary casualties."

"Yeah, yeah. I get it, your needed for bigger, more important things, but I just can't, Cass."

"You will try! For me. If you can't then I won't hold it against you," Cass told him. When Dean looked up into the taller man's face, he was searching his eyes, trying to show his sincerity.

"Well, if we're going to try this," Dean said, trying to swallow down some of his disgust, "We should buy some porn".

"Okay," agreed Cass.

Dean gentle tugged his hands as a signal to Cass to let him go. When he was released, he walked around him to grab the television remote from the nightstand. When he turned on the tube, he quickly flipped to the lower channels, to find the movie channel. He chose "Adult movies" from the selection, and then picked "Lovely Asian Beauties". He looked at the bed, thinking that he should probably sit down, but then he knew that Cass would be sitting right next to him if he did. He had a hard time imagining how he would be able to sit next to the man while watching porn. He couldn't even contemplate what they had to do in order to get Cass on his merry ol' way to war. His adams apple bobbed, nervously.

Cass watched Dean. He had nothing but sympathy for the man. His vessel, Jimmy, had no leanings toward men either, so he could kind of understand what was going on in Dean's head right now. Cass had trouble understanding human emotions, sexuality, social etiquette, and figures of speech, but he also knew that he would have to take the lead in some of this stuff. As Dean would say, he had to "wing it". He walked forward, and fit himself between the bed and the wall, untill he was standing near the headboard, across from Dean. When he sat down on the bed, he stared straight ahead, not at the t.v., but below it, waiting. Finally, Dean took in a big breathe of air, and sat down next to Cass. Their arms barely touched. Cass looked at the porn video, constantly aware of the other man's tension. Minutes passed, as Dean tried to forget everything, and just watch the video. For a few seconds at a time, he could focus in on the bouncing boobs, and the babes kissing each other, but then he would come back to reality, and tense up again. This wasn't working.

"Uhm..."

Dean tried to speak, but the words wouldn't form. His mouth was too dry.

"Yes," Cass encouraged in that monotone.

"Do you.. Do you think we should touch?"

"Yes," Cass said, getting nervous on the inside. He guessed that nervousness could be contagious.

Cass continued to watch the television for a little while. He was watching the way the people in the movie touched. "Caress," was the word that came to mind. He looked at Jimmy's memories of moments with his wife. He closed his eyes, and lifted his hand from his thigh, and transfered it to the closest of Dean's legs. Jimmy's memories told him that the touch was platonic, but he had used the gesture to ask for his wife's consent, to move on to more intimate things. He slowly rubbed Dean's leg in soothing, circular motions, staying by his knee. Eventually, Dean lowered his hand onto Cass', and Cass kept it still. That one simple contact made the appendage in between his legs twitch. Dean dragged the hand up the arm, and to his shoulder, and back again. For the first time since he took the form of Jimmy Novak, he regretted wearing long sleeves. He wondered what that touch would feel like on bare skin. Cass loosened his tie, and pulled it off over his head. He then began to unbutton his shirt, button by button. He didn't put on a show, because he didn't know how to strip tease.

"Uh Cass," Dean said, "what are you doing?"

"It's only the shirt don't worry," he said, as he pulled the shirt from his belt.

"Okay."

Cass wanted Dean to trace his fingers up his arm again, but didn't know how to ask. He didn't want the man to freak out. He was already skittish. So he kept silent, and Dean didn't touch him again. He was just staring at his chest, but Cass didn't think he was actually looking at him. He seemed to be contemplating something. He let him think.

Dean looked up into Cass' face and said, "I think your beautiful Cass".

"That's just the vessel," he responded.

"No. That's not it at all. When you were temporarily kicked out of Jimmy's body, it shocked the crap out of me. I was kind of scared. Not only because you were gone, and I thought I would need your protection, but because I was scared _for _you. I missed you, and I was left wondering if you would ever be able to come back. It's different when Jimmy's behind the wheel. It's in the eyes. Your beautiful."

Cass looked back at Dean. He didn't know the words to fit to the feeling inside him, but he felt good. After a moment, Dean asked, "Why'd I say that?"

"It's Aphrodite's influence. It's what was in your heart, so you said it."

"Oh."

His adams apple bobbed up and down as he thought some more, "I think I would totally be into you if I was a homosexual."

That's when Cass thought it was safe to make another move. He place his right hand on Dean's face, looking him in the eye. He gave Dean a minute to contemplate what he was going to do, in case he decided to pull away. Again, he was drawing on Jimmy's memories. When he kissed Dean he marveled at how such a simple act made him feel... amazing. He went on the body's instinct, putting his tongue in Dean's mouth, ever so slightly, hesitatingly tasting his mouth. Cass thought that Dean tasted sweet, and delicious when it didn't taste sweet at all. It was just the word that came to mind, for some reason. In fact, Dean tasted a little like the whiskey he had been drinking out of his flask earlier, when he had been doing research. Soft was the next word that came to mind, and that one was more true. The inside of his mouth was pleasantly soft.

Ever so gently, Cass lay back on the bed, pulling Dean on top of him. That's when it snapped, the spell, or whatever it had been. Aphrodite's influence no longer affected their actions, as Dean began to kiss back, exploring Cass' mouth in return. It grew more passionate, as Dean placed his hand behind Cass' neck.

Cass wondered why Dean wasn't stopping. He had felt his own chest relax, as Aphrodite's influence released him. Cass was just thinking that maybe Dean didn't know that the spell was broken, when he pulled back from the kiss, and put a finger over his lips.

"I want this," Dean confessed in a whisper, "I need this".

"Okay," Cass rumbled back. His army could wait a little while longer. He was going to enjoy this, whatever it was, with _his_ Dean.

Dean took the oppurtunity to strip his own shirt off over his head. He then went back to kissing Cass, as he unzipped the man's pants. The kisses turned to quick, nipping kisses. Cass found that he liked it when Dean bit his lips like that. When he tried to pull Cass' pants off, not everything was going as planned. He stopped kissing, to see what the hold up was.

"I _hate_ belts," Dean declared, as he slowed down to unfasten the belt from around Cass' waiste. He didn't particularly care for the waiste in question, because, lets face it, it was a man's waiste, but he wanted the pants off so that they could get to the fun part. When he finally got the pants off, he crawled all the way back up the man's body so he could make out with him again. This wasn't the confusing part. Making out with a man or woman, was essentially the same. Tongues, teeth, and lips, it felt so good! When he reached down south, he ran his hand up from the balls to the tip of the head and back again. For a split second, he had a thought that it was so weird that he was touching another man's balls, but did it anyway, because he remembered that it felt so good when it was done to him. He gave Cass a few more strokes before he started kissing down his neck, and across his chest. When Cass' cock was about to touch the bottom of his jaw if he continued down the trail, he stopped.

He hesitated, staring at it. Then he put it in his mouth, and swirled his tongue around it. He was shocked that he kind of enjoyed having a cock in his mouth. He gave it two strokes with his mouth, then pulled away. He stared at it again, scared and confused about what he had just done. He had pre-come in his mouth. It tasted better than a woman's juices, but the gooey texture he couldn't get use to.

"You can stop if you want to," Cass said.

Deans head snapped up to look at his face.

"You don't have to do this. You can stop this if you want to," Cass repeated.

"Does it feel good to you?"

"It doesn't matter what I feel. If you want to stop, you should."

Dean, put his face right in front of Cass', and said, "Of course it matters. Do you want me to continue?"

"Yes, it feels so good," he admitted with a sigh, and he was surprised at how true that statement was. He knew it was more than just the physical aspect of it. Somehow, he knew his emotions were giving it all that extra Mmph. He knew that these feelings were something special... Was this love?

Cass' confession was all that Dean needed to make the decision to continue. Even though all these feelings were scaring the crap out of him, he knew one thing: it made him happy to know that Cass was feeling good. Dean stripped off his pants, and boxers. He then started stroking Cass' cock again, as he started to lick and suck the fingers of his other hand. He had done anal once before, in Wisconson with this freaky girl who would fuck anybody new who came to her teeny tiny little town. He prepared Cass as gently as possible. He only hoped that spit would work for now. He really couldn't go shopping for lube this late in the game.

When Dean entered Cass' body, he moved real slowly. When he started his second thrust, Cass gave out the tiniest of gasps. "I'm not hurting you, am I," Dean asked.

"No," Cass answered. As Dean continued to thrust in him, he mentally changed his answer to 'sometimes', but he didn't say it out loud, because he knew that Dean was doing the best he could to be as gentle as he could. So Cass lay back, and took the pleasure with the pain.

At some point Dean groaned an "Ohh, Shit."

He took that explitive as a sign that he was enjoying himself.

Soon after, all movement came to a halt, then Dean said, "Oh man, I can't. I have to.."

As understanding dawned on him, Cass put his legs behind Dean's pulling him in, as permission to finish. With three quick, and maybe not so gentle thrusts, his lover spilled his load into his ass.

When Dean looked down he noticed that Cass was wet with pre-come but still hadn't finished. He ducked down quickly between his legs, and began his work. His arms hooked under his legs and up the man's sides. Cass' hands clenched in the blankets as Dean sucked, and swallowed down his cock. When Cass started to reach his peak of arousal he started making some interesting sounds, and he started unintentionallly thrusting into Dean's hot, moist mouth. Dean brought his elbows inward, to trap Cass' thrusting hips between his arms. He didn't want to choke, as the hot semen spilled over, and down his throat.

Dean rested his hot, sweaty head on Cass' stomache, as the latter gasped to catch his breathe. Dean kissed up and around Cass' stomache. It was something he did sometimes to the girls, as a way of thanking them for a good lay. Cass heard the Impala seconds before Dean, and then Dean was scrambling around, hurrying to get dressed. Cass just had to will his clothes on and then they were.

"Jerk," commented Dean, but then he flashed the man a smile, and a wink to show that he was joking.

As Sam entered the room, Cass blinked out.

"Glad to see we're not keeping hostages anymore," Sam commented, " so I guess the spell wore off."

"Yeah, it did," Dean lied, avoiding eye contact, turning off the television which now showed the movie genre screen.

A sea green voltswagon beetle pulled off the curb of the highway a few miles outside of town. Inside the car sat a lanky blonde woman. She had a smile on her face while she congradulated herself on a job well done. Her name was Aphrodite. She was the daughter of both the christian God, and Eve of purgatory. Unlike all her half brothers, and sisters, she answered to nobody. And only she knew why her spell had worn off in the middle of the action. She had forced Dean to see what was truly in his heart, which was mostly loneliness. She knew that forcing Dean to have sex he didn't want wouldn't be an act of love, so she hadn't pushed him that far. Her influence was suppose to release when _he_ wanted it for himself.

Aphrodite was pretty sure that her father would dissaprove of her match making this time. She didn't care. Angels don't fall in love easy. Since they don't procreate, her father had not created them with a great need for love, so she was happy that she could help those two along. Dean, and Castiel needed that little break, even if confusion and heartbreak came after. Dean needed some one strong to fall in love with, so that he would know that not everything he touched died. He was not a son of Death, just born in a tough fate, and destined to have a tough life. Cass needed to know that he had loved Dean all along. He would probably need that love to hold onto on the tough road ahead.

On to the next place. This time she would choose her couples more carefully. She had only let those ten people kill each other, or themselves so that she could lure the Winchesters into town. The dead ones would get their just rewards, on her island or in heaven as is their choice. She was also happy that Sam had finally gotten some, even if he had missed the entire point of the excercise. The most important thing about Molly Skeiner was that she was with child, and the Winchester/Campbell line wouldn't end with these two knuckle-heads. That child had both a great, and terrible destiny.


	2. The Heartach and pain

Dean had been trying to avoid calling on Cass' help for a few months now. He had been stuggling with the realization that he was a heterosexual man who was in love with another man. Sam had gone out to interview a few people about their current case, while Dean had volunteered to do research. What he really was going to do was confront Cass.

"Hey, Cass," he began, talking to the ceiling, "if you have a minute, I need you."

Almost instantly Cass was there. Dean could feel the heat of his body, against his back. Cass didn't usually fly in, and get in your personal space right away. Dean struggled with his body's needs. He wanted to turn right around and tear all of Cass' clothes off, right then, and there. Instead, he gripped his elbows tight, and closed his eyes.

Cass closed the few inches of space between himself and Dean. He slowly, and carefully wrapped his arms around the brunette, treating him like a skittish horse. He had been watching Dean, whenever he could drop in. Dean had never noticed him on these visits, because he had always been cloaked from the human eye. He had seen Dean struggle with his thoughts, and seen Sam and Dean arguing once over wether to ask for his help. He knew Dean hadn't wanted to see him ever since their evening together, so he had given him his space, or at least made it seem like he was. In reality he had needed to see Dean. It gave him comfort to even be in the same room, even if he had to sneak the visits. He needed that comfort now more than ever. Dean kept the rotten parts of his heart from choking him, as he went about the messy business of killing his own brothers. Now, with his arms around Dean, all felt right in the universe. He slowly lowered his head in the crook of his neck, and kissed him lightly there.

"It's alright," Cass whispered, "I struggled with this too."

Dean turned around, in Cass' arms. They stared at each other, drinking it all in. Dean reached for Cass, and kissed him. It was real gentle and sweet, everything Cass had imagined it would be. Dean enjoyed the embrace, too. In the back of his brain, he still wished that Cass had been a woman, just so that his life could be a little bit easie. He half wished that there could have been soft breasts being smashed between their chests.

"I need you," Dean said, his lips just a millimeter away from Cass'.

"I can't, not right now. I only came because I needed to hold you. And I knew you needed me to be here. I have to go soon."

Dean ignored the slight prick of pain the rejection caused, and nodded his head once in understanding. He backed out of Cass' arms, snagged one more kiss, then backed away again.

"Come again when you have more time."

In the blink of an eye, Cass was gone.

When Crowley told him that they could share the souls of purgatory Cass saw an oppurtunity to save his people, so he took the deal. Making bargains with a devil was never a good idea, but he was a little desperate. The fates had pushed his hand for plan A when they had threatened his boys. When the Winchesters had started to become suspicious of his plans, he decided to do what Dean had done for Lisa and Ben. Cass erased Dean's memories of their night together, and the kiss two months after.

Cass stood over Dean's bed, watching him sleep. It really was a shame that they hadn't had the oppurtunity to spend a second evening together, but he supposed that one couldn't have everything. He knew that ever since he had made the deal with Crowley this night would come. A God couldn't be in love, and that's exactly what he planned on becoming. He kissed Dean on the forehead. He was asleep so he wouldn't notice. When Cass left Dean, he decided to ignore his love for Dean. He tried to fool himself into thinking that one mortal's dissaproval of him didn't matter. It did. In the end he would give in to Dean's wishes, and release the souls he had collected from Purgatory. His lover's forgiveness was the only thing that mattered.


	3. Memories Return

Sam and Dean stopped outside a truckstop diner on their way to South Carolina. Dean looked over the menu, trying to make the decision on wether to have a steak omlette, or a ham and egg breakfast. Sam had already decided and was looking for the waitress, to tell her that they were ready to order, when his eyes ran over a familiar face. His eyes did a double take.

"I can't believe it..."

"What," Dean asked with only a vague interest as he started playing eeny meenie miny mo with the menu.

"Isn't that Aphrodite?"

"Who," he asked, still only half paying attention.

"You know.. That case a while back when we thought we were facing a witch Mandy who turned out not to be a witch at all."

"Nope, don't have the vaguest recollection," he replied, turning the menue over and seeing a limited time offer of the "Mother of All Meat Sandwiches".

"Oooh I'll have that!" Dean finally looked up from his menu to find his brother staring at him like an alien had swapped his brains.

"What?"

"You seriously can't be telling me that you don't remember that case!"

The tall lanky blonde who Sam had just been mentioning was standing by his shoulder. Sam jumped back in surprise. She was smiling kindly at Sam and Dean.

"He doesn't remember because Cas erased his memory," she said pulling a chair over from an empty table and sitting on it sideways.

"You can relax Sam, I won't zap you again."

"What do you mean?"

The smile fell from her face, "Cass did his best to protect you Dean."

"What are you," Dean growled.

Aphrodite sighed. It made her sad to see Dean's defenses go up. Her younger siblings often didn't see that she was trying to help. Often her brothers called her a meddler.

"I told you, man, she's Aphrodite."

"As in the greek God?"

"Yes, the greek God, haven't you been listening?"

"Not really," Dean admitted, taking a small pleasure in watching his brother scowl.

Aphrodite touched Dean on the side of his head, rubbing his short hair in a tender way. The only reason he had let her do it was because he was distracted with taunting Sam. He flinched back from the touch as he saw a flicker of his nightmare cross his vision.

"I can reinforce my brother's memory block, if you want me to. The memories will come back on their own, if I don't."

"Why would I want anyone messing with my head? I don't like Gods! Their either egotistical pains in the asses, dead beat deuschbags, or just plain creepy."

"Fine, suite yourself," she told Dean, then she looked at Sam and said, "Call me when he's suffering."

Aphrodite stormed off, walking to the kitchen to get the food for her other tables. She pointedly ignored the winchesters as they left. Sam looked in the local newspapers before they left the truckstop. He wanted to make sure that Aphrodite wasn't making a bunch of people off themselves again. There was nothing unusual in the papers, just a car accident from the night before, and a house fire. 'Good,' Sam thought, his consconse was clear. It's not like he really knew how to vanquish her even if she was up to the same crap as with the last time they had meet her. He got into the car with Dean as they headed off to South Dakota and meet up with Bobby.

0-0-0-0

_Dean dreamt that he was sitting next to Cass. He could hear women's moans, and other noises in the backround, like someone was watching a porno. For some reason Cas wasn't wearing a shirt. He was staring at Cass' bare chest, thinking. Then he felt himself saying as he looked into Cass' eyes_,_ "I think your beautiful Cass"._

_ "That's just the vessel," he responded._

_ "No. That's not it at all. When you were temporarily kicked out of Jimmy's body, it shocked the crap out of me. I was kind of scared. Not only because you were gone, and I thought I would need your protection, but because I was scared _for_ you. I missed you, and I was left wondering if you would ever be able to come back. It's different when Jimmy's behind the wheel. It's in the eyes. Your beautiful."_

_ Cass looked back at Dean, and after a moment, Dean asked, "Why'd I say that?"_

_ "It's Aphrodite's influence. It's what was in your heart, so you said it."_

Dean woke up at Bobby's feeling slightly disoriented. That dream had felt more than a dream. It almost felt like a memory. That couldn't be though... Why would he say what he had said to Cass? He shook off the dream, and went about his business. He went down the hall and took a shower, then went down to see what was for breakfast, and if anybody had word on what the laviathin were doing lately. He wanted to go off another job. Any job would do. He just wanted to keep himself busy so that he didn't have to think to much.

0-0-0-0

_Dean dreamt that he was having an argument with his brother. They had a weird case that looked like it may be angel artifact related, but he was refusing to call on Cass. He didn't really understand why the dream him was so adament about calling on the angel. He did it all the time. What was so different now? All he knew was that when he thought of Cass he he felt confused, and he kind of hated himself._

_He had one distinct thought, as the arguement faded into the backround of his mind, 'I'm not gay'._

_Just before he woke he felt the ghost of a kiss on his lips._

Dean went out with Sam for breakfast. He didn't know what he wanted to eat. His eye roamed over the menu and nothing caught his attention. The things he would normally order didn't even peak his interest. A wave of nastalgia rolled over him. For a moment, three words whisked through his brain, "I miss Cass". He tried to shake the feeling, as he ordered a simple breakfast of bacon eggs, and homefries. Sam's eyebrow went up when he heard his brother order sunny side up rather than scrambled, and noted the lack of meat on his platter. He said nothing though he worried about Aphrodite's words.

Later on in the afternoon, Sam and Dean decided to split up on their Case, because they had a lot of witnesses to cover. When they meet up for lunch, Dean said that he wasn't really hungry, and had ordered a garlic roll and water. Sammy's worry-o-meter raised a little bit.

They had a funeral to go to after lunch. They weren't exactly certain which cemetary the body was suppose to go to, or which house the family was going to hold the wake at. They did know which funeral parlor the body had been sent to so they went there. They sat in the very back of the room at the viewing. At some point Sam felt his brother stiffen in his chair beside him. He looked up to see what had caught Dean's attention. A woman, he was thinking that it was the mother of the deceased, was standing up near the coffin, hugging her elbows and crying. Her husband walked up behind her and held her tight, placing a chaste kiss on her collarbone.

"Something wrong Dean?"

"I'm fine," Dean automatically responded.

Dean wasn't really fine. He was a little distracted for the rest of the day. At the end, when they found what they had been hunting, Dean let his guard down and got thrown hard for his troubles. When they went to the hotel Dean grabbed a whiskey bottle that he kept in his duffle, and downed a third of it. Sam had to sew up his arm so he let his brother drink. Even after the stitches were in place, though, Dean continued to drink from the bottle as if it contained water. Dean didn't want to dream tonight. He knew that he would remember something that he didn't want to. He planned on getting blackout drunk so that he couldn't dream anything.

When Dean woke in the morning he shot up straight in his bed, and he was covered in sweat. He had dreamed, despite his best efforts not to. He now remembered what had happened between him and Cas. He finally understood why Cass' death had affected him more than anybody else's.

Dean curled up around his knees, held his head in his hands and started to cry. He wanted to tear all the thoughts and feelings out of his brain. Sam woke up just as Dean started to moan 'no' over and over again.

"Dean?"

Sam was up out of the bed in an instant. He turned on the bathroom light so that he could see what was going on without blinding everybody. He approached his crying brother, a little frightened, and called out to him again. There was still no answer, as he buried his face behind his knees and started whimpering occasionally.

He didn't know what to do. Aphrodite's words came back to him in that moment, "Call me when he's suffering." He didn't trust her any more than Dean did, but he didn't see any other option here but to take the offer of help from a God whose motives he didn't know. She hadn't left him with a number, so he assumed that she would hear him the same way angel's did.

"Aphrodite, if your serious about your offer of help, I could use your help right now."

"Thought you'd never ask," came a voice from behind him, near the door.

Aphrodite didn't waiste time asking questions or giving answers, she just walked pass Sam, and stood by Dean. She looked upon this whimpering, rocking shell of a man with pity. She got in bed just behind Dean. She then pulled his arms from around his knees, turned him sideways, and pulled him against her chest. Dean was practically in her lap now, and she just held him tight, shushing his cries of pain. Dean could feel the slight healing affects of Aphrodite's presence through his haze of pain, but he was far from cured.

Sam watched as Aphrodite rocked his brother. He was surprised at how nurturing she was. He had for some reason thought that she had been a monster, mostly because of what her influence had done to those ten people back in Minnesota. Now he wondered why he had thought that, especially if she was suppose to be a goddess of love. What could be more purely good than love? After a little while, when Dean quieted, Aphrodite began to sing, and the song that she chose surprised him even more.

_Hey jude dont make it bad_

_take a sad song and make it bette_

_take a sad song and make it better_

_remember to let her into your heart_

_then you can start to make it better..._

At the end of the song Dean was asleep.

"Didn't know you were a beatles fan," Sam commented, keeping his voice down as not to disturb Dean's sleep.

"I reckon there's a lot you don't know about me, Chuckie," Aphrodite responded, "but that wasn't because I like the song. It was to remind him of the comfort of Mary."

"Mary? As in our mother Mary?"

"You know that's who I mean; don't ask stupid questions."

There was a pause in conversation as Aphrodite very gently readjusted Dean's position, and extracted herself from the bed in order to lie him down for sleep. Once the Winchester boy was comfortably tucked into bed, she ran her hand through his hair, and said, "There are angels watching over you."

Sam shuddered at the thought, but Dean just smiled in his sleep and gave a little contented sigh. Even though her back was turned, she had felt Sams shudder with her sixth sense. When she turned around she glared at Sam, but the twinkle in her eye said that she wasn't actually angy, just amused as a smile creeped across her face.

"I'm not saying it to give you the willies, Sam. I'm saying it to soothe your brother. I want to conjure up memories of your mother. In my experience, nothing is more soothing than memories of a mother's nurturing touch."

Sam normally didn't think about how sad it was that he never remembered his mother. At least now now that he was in his mid-twenties. Now in Aphrodites presence, after witnessing what she had done for his brother, he felt a little sad and cheated.

"I'm sorry," she said, running her hand down his arm, "I never like it when people are hurting, but unfortunately life comes with ups and downs, and so does love."

"It's no big deal," Sam shrugged.

Aphrodite knew that it was a big deal, but didn't argue since there was nothing that she could do or say to make it better. Some pains it was best to ignore. Instead Aphrodite went to go sit down on the edge of the dresser, and motioned Sam to sit on his bed, opposite.

"I suppose that you would like to know what's going on, and it would be a good idea for you to understand your brother's behavior. If your going to react than remember to do so quietly, because your brother needs to sleep. I'm trying to keep his soul from shattering again. When we meet before, you know, when Castiel was alive..."

Aphrodite paused after she mentioned the angel, to make sure that the name didn't have any negative effects on Dean's dreams. When she was satisfied, she continued, "I know that you were kind of left with the impression that I'm one of those pagan gods that needed to be dealt with. I'm not. I'm kind of a second generation God. Many other of the greek Gods are just myth. Of course you meet war, and he does exist, but he's hardly a god. Athena is real. She's my twin sister.

"My father is the same God that is worshipped in the western religion. My mother on the other hand is Eve of Purgatory. A long long time ago, before the angels were created and the first monster was born my parents were in love"

At this point in the story, Sam's eyes were bugging out. He clamped his mouth shut before anything more than his first strangled cries of surprise could escaped his mouth. Aphrodite ignored his reaction and continued with her story.

"I'm not sure what exactly happened between my parents, because I was so young when they broke up, practically an infant. My parents never did tell me either. I guess it's their business, anyway, and they figure that as their child, I shouldn't know anything that's strictly their business. As seperate Gods they started creating children of their own, seperate from each other. Father brought forth the angels, while mother occupied herself with raising my sister and I.

"When father created people that's when the real problems began. As you know, Lucifer became jealous of Adam, and was then cast down to hell. Mother also became jealous, thinking that he loved his precious human son above all the others. Mother didn't think it was right that he showed more love towards Adam than he had ever showed to his first born children. Knowing that Father loved Adam and Eve's innocense above all else, he convinced him to work with my sister to create the Tree of Knowledge.

"Father wouldn't allow my mother into the garden so she spoke to Lucifer, playing on his insecurities, and his jealousy. She complained about how weak they were, and how unworthy they were to receive such love from God. She told him about the Tree of Knowledge, and how it would put the humans out of favor if they were to eat from it. So, when he told mother how much he'd love for that to happen she agreed to turn him into a snake. And mother could do that. Father had produced all the plant life, but mother had created all of the beasts. Well, with the exception of the Laviathin, of course.

"Centuries passed, and people became many. Mother was mighty pissed when father had declared that he had made man so that he could rule over all the creatures of the Earth. People slaughtered her beasts and ate them. So mother created the first monster, the vampire. People ate her cows so her monsters ate people. Eventually Father created the Phoenix with a lock of mother's hair to trap her in purgatory.

"Anyway, my sister and I don't really get ourselves involved with our parents' fighting. We love all of our family just the same. We are elders to all, so we take a certain amount of pride in our roles as big sisters.

"When I arrived in that little town of Minnesota I spread my influence around like a contagious disease. I'm not normally that careless about who I focus my talents on. But I pushed those ten people to murder and suicide so that I could attract your attention, yours and Dean's. You guys don't stay in one particular town for long, and I didn't want to do this in South Dakota where Bobby is because that could have unexpected consequences. So I set my little trap and you guys came into town as planned."

"Why us?"

"Are you not tired of asking that question? Just accept the fact that you are important to a lot of beings."

"So, you were just using us?"

"No! No, no, no, no, no! That's not it at all. I was trying to help. Mostly I was trying to help Castiel and Dean. All three of you guys are little brothers to me, and I was just trying to help. How was I to fore see the laviathin doing Cass in. When I realized what he was doing, I hoped he would stick to the deal and only grabbed half the souls. That's all he needed to save heaven."

"How was zapping us unconcious going to help Cass and Dean?"

"Well, you made me skip ahead in my story. Let me back up. Okay, so you guys came to town, and you were right where I wanted you guys. I let you guys corner me, zapping you to make my getaway. I gave you a high dosage of power for four reasons. For one, it takes a lot of power to call down an angel from heaven, and also if I hadn't trapped Cass the way I had they both would have shrugged off the link. My third reason was that I knew that you needed to meet Molly right away, since you guys travel a lot. You totally missed the point of the excercise by the way. And lastly, I know that having to tell people what I have done sends them straight into denial. Love is something that people have to figure out on their own. Oh, and plus I know you guys would have tried to 'gank' me if we had meet again, so yeah... It would have been painful for me, and embarrassing for you guys, since I'm practically ungankable."

Dean was left gawking with his mouth for a second, as he was coming around to having a sneaking suspicion as to what Aphrodite had done to Cass and Dean. Aphrodite looked at her nails, as if they were dirty, waiting for everything to click into place for Sam.

"Oh my God! Your not saying..."

Aphrodite looked up at him and said, "A cookie for you Sam. That's exactly what I mean. Dean needed Cass to heal his heart and soul, and I had sneaking suspicion that Cass needed to realize his love for Dean. So while you were out having relations with Molly, Cass and Dean were..."

Aphrodite cleared her throat at this point to get her point across. She didn't want to gross Sam out with indelicate words. Every word was an indelicate word when it came down to telling Sam exactly what Dean and Cass were doing back at their hotel room.

"That's disgusting," Sam declared in a loud whisper.

"Only because he's your brother.. But love is love, and before Cass erased his memory, Dean _knew_ that he was in love with kind little Cass."

There was a long pause in the conversation as Aphrodite waited for Sam to acclamate to the truth she had revealed.

"Why does he remember now?"

"I only have a working theory, since something like this only happened once before. I think that because of the extenuating cirrcumstances in which they hooked up," she said to Sam, smirking as she watched him flinch, "through my influence, that is, Dean's heart is able to remember while his mind forgets. When Cass passed, it was only a matter of time before Dean's hidden memories began to surface."

Aphrodite lifted a hand to indicate Dean's slumbering form as she said, "And this is what you get, I suppose, when a painful memory that your not prepared for comes back."

They both watched Dean sleep peacefully for a moment, thinking back on how much pain Dean was in when he had first woke at six-thirty this morning. After a while Sam's curiosities came back. He had remembered what Cass had said on the evening they were trying to figure out what Aphrodite was.

"Is it true that your the mother of all sirens?"

Aphrodite had been focusing all of her attention on Dean, so when Sam asked his question she was caught totally unprepared, and she flinched. Sam was comforted to see that he could take a god by surprise. It had seemed almost as if the goddess had been reading his mind up to that point. Aphrodite's brow crinkled in pained dissapointment, as she admitted that, yes, the sirens came from her loins.

"I-," Aphrodite stuttered as she tried to explain how her creations had come to be, "I was an irrisponsible person back then... I use to save a few sailors from the sea, and take them to my island back then. Even though I could choose anyone as a mate, none seemed to be right for me. I was really lonely, so I fooled myself into believing that lust was enough for a little over a century. My daughters who were born of pure lust, started to take after my mother's side of the family. I tried to teach them of love, but they didn't seem to understand. When my daughters became too many for my tiny little island home, I released them out on the world, not knowing what Miria would do. Her sickness began to spread from sister to sister untill it became a popular trend amongst sirens to get the men they were playing with to off their family members. It just makes me so sad to know what has become of my daughters..."

There was another pause in conversation as Sam looked for a subject change.

"You have _never_ been in love?" Sam found that hard to believe.

"I didn't say that. It just took me a long to find that sort of connection with anyone."

"So who was the lucky man?"

Aphrodite's smile spread across her face, making her look like a teenager about to reveal a secret crush to her friends. She bit her lip, and scrunched her nose before blirting it out.

"Gabriel," she said quickly, as if she would loose her nerve if she thought about it too long. Sam was a little shocked, remembering the short guy with the cleft nose. Then again, he supposed that Gabriel might be a little more attractive to those who could see his true form. Aphrodite sighed, as she thought back on the good days.

"That guy sure was a charmer! And boy could he dance. He use to make laugh with the crazy stuff he came up with."

Sam sure hoped that Aphrodite was aware of the passing of her ex lover, because the she was looking now, he would be afraid to break the news to her. He remember back to the day Gabriel died and realized that he mentioned having a fling with Kala, the hindu goddess of chaos. He pointed out as much to Aphrodite, and the smile faded.

"Yeah, well the break-up was mostly his fault. We had a son together," she told Sam, "the original cupid. He was such a beautiful baby.. I worried about him growing up wrong like his sisters had, so I froze him in time. I wouldn't let him grow past a toddler. That's why most cupid legends show a baby in diapers holding a bow and arrow. One of the rules of existance is that things are constantly changing, though, so eventually the spell I put on him slipped, and his mind started to become fully developed. Eventually I realized that I had to let him grow up. When he physically became fifteen he was stolen away from me. Micheal became obsessed about the apocalypse then, and turned my son against me. I liked life the way it was, but micheal painted a grandeur picture of what life could be like after the apocolypse. Micheal helped create cupids arrow, and the first thing he did with it was to stab my son in the chest with it. Him and an angel copulated, and began producing an army of cupids who became tools of Micheal. Micheal wanted to make sure that when the apocalypse finally did come, there'd be enough vessels for his angels, and they'd be prepared for the final battle. When I begged Gabriel to confront his brother he refused."

Aphrodite began to cry and forgetting about Dean she cried out, "He was _**my**_ baby!"

When Dean whimpered Aphrodite excused herself and walked outside. Sam felt absolutely terrible about bringing up the painful past. Damn his curiosity! He followed Aphrodite out after a quick look at his brother, thinking that he'd stay under long enough for Sam to try and comfort the heartbroken love god.

Outside, the sun was almost completely up. The early morning sunshine glinted off Aphrodite's hair as if it were made of gold. Sam approached the crying goddess quietly, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look up at Sam, her eyes glistening with moisture. In the next moment she was hiding her face in his chest. When Sam closed his arms around her she gave a quivering sigh of contentment.

"The worst thing is," she said, only slightly muffled, "that now that he's gone, I keep kicking myself for not forgiving him. Now both my boys are gone from me."

After a while Aphrodite looked up at Sam. Her eyes were a deep green that reminded him of jungles, and rainforests. "Sometimes it can be healing to remember those that you've lost, Sam, so don't worry too much on how you've hurt me. Especially since I intend to hand the pain right back to you," Aphrodite threatened.

"Let's go back inside," she said, as she pulled Sam along with her.

Aphrodite went straight to Deans bed once they were inside, touching his face as he slept. When she first started talking to Sam, she ws still watching Dean's recumbent form, but then she eventually looked up to see the emotions play across his face, and body.

"You loved Jessica, did you not?"

Sam froze to the spot, thinking. The answer was yes, but he had a hard time admitting to that these days. He had found out from the demon dressed in Brody's skin that Jessica was a match made in Hell. Demons had planned his relationship from the start, just so that they could kill her later. Admitting that he loved Jessica made him feel like a chump. He had played right into Lucifers hands.

"It's okay to have loved her Sam," she told him, noting how uncomfortable he felt about the subject.

"I know," he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

"Did you know that I can go into heaven or purgatory as I please? I use to go and visit my parents in each place to spend time with them. That's before I started having babies. I still sometimes go to both places. I've spoken with Jessica. She says that she misses you, and that she wouldn't change anything, not even if she had got to live to a hundred. She says that a couple years with you was better than an eternity without you."

Aphrodite watched Sam shuffle his feet, and fidget, as if he wasn't sure which leg to stand with. He was looking down at the carpet, trying to fight back the tears. Her arms ached with the need to comfort him, but she controlled herself and held back. He needed to hear something else.

"She really said that?"

"Of course sweetheart," she crooned, "It's against my nature to lie."

Aphrodite mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do, and said, "I've also talked with Madison."

"Oh God," he moaned. He looked up at the ceiling as tears filled his eyes.

"She said that your night together was the most beautiful, and perfect night. She was all a-glow, and gushing with complements about how gentle and kind you were."

That's when the waterworks started, as Sam started crying with quiet, wet sobs. Aphrodite finally let herself go to the younger Winchester, and cradle his head against her shoulder. After a few moments, she pulled back from the embrace very gently.

"Come," she whispered, gently towing Sam along untill they stood beside his bed. She sat on the bed in an indian style posture, and instructed Sam to lay down and put his head on her lap. She then began running her hands along his smooth locks, letting him feel the bitter sweet pain of lost love. Soon Aphrodite began to sing with a hum, and a soft whisper.

_When I find myself in times of trouble_

_Mother Mary comes to me_

_speaking words of wisdom, let it be._

_And in my hour of darkness_

_she is standing in front of me_

_speaking words of wisdom, let it be._

When she was finished she spoke to the top of Sam's head, "Your mother was an amazing woman. She had just a touch of clairvoyance. She knew who Dean would be when he grew to be a man, so she chose 'Hey Jude' for your brother's lullaby. She also knew you too, Sam, and the temper you would have. She sang 'Let It Be' to you every night. She knew you Sam, and she knew Dean too. Her two boys were so different, but she loved you both so very much. And her love was equal as it should be. She watched over you guys for your entire lives, and she is proud of you more than words can say."

0-0-0-0

When the Winchester boys woke a couple hours later, Aphrodite was gone. They packed up their things, and headed Northeast, back to Bobby's. They weren't ready to talk about what had happened just yet, but they both felt better after the love goddess' visit. They didn't feel weird about trusting her, but then that was just the way she worked. People let her into their lives rather quickly and began to trust her almost instantly.

The Impala pulled out onto the street, found it's way to the highway, and climbed the entrance ramp without anyone expressing the urge to talk. Dean had a dull ache in his chest, where the link to Cas was severed, but it was at least bareable now. Sam was thinking about Jesse and Madison marveling at his luck in finding both women. They were both different, and yet they were all the more beautiful for their differences.

"I loved him," Dean said, for the first time saying it out loud.

"I know," Sam said, turning his attention to his brother's pain. It hurt him a little to see Dean suffering. He understood what he was going through, because he had gone through the same thing when he had lost Jess. He knew that Dean would still have nightmares for some time yet. He hoped that he could be there for his brother, as he had been there for him when he was dealing with the damage of being in the cage.

Dean was quiet during the drive. Sam couldn't blame him. He figured that he was still trying to wrap his head around things. After a few miles of silent blacktop Sam tried to find something to say.

"Gabriel was doing Aphrodite once upon a time, you know, before Kala."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, and apparently they have a kid together."

"Wooow! I don't know how that deutschbag gets around so well. He must have a big johnson."

"Oh gross, Dean," Sam declared, with feeling.

"Do you have a good visual image on that big floppy donkey dick," Dean asked, shoving Sam's leg away, and laughing at the new game he thought up.

"Hey Sam-" Dean started, but as he opened his mouth to say more Sam clapped his his hands over his ears, yelling, "I can't hear you! La la la la la!"


	4. self destruct

Sam and Dean make it safely to Bobby's house, and head straight to bed as its three in the morning. Dean just barely makes it out of his jeans before he's falling face first into the pillow, and is fast asleep.

Dean's day starts early, as he wakes from a nightmare. Its the same nightmare as always. Cass walks into the reservoir while Dean stands ineffectually on the shore, unable to stop what's going to happen. When Cass' head sinks beneath the water, he's torn apart by the monsters inside him. The only thing that's different this time is that he feels differently. The dream makes his chest hurt a little more, and Dean unknowingly moans Cass' name in his sleep.

Dean heads straight to the bathroom down the hall and takes a hot shower, twisting the tap to it's most bareable temperature. He avoids looking at the hand shaped scar on his shoulder as he washes the grime of the road from his skin. When he looks at himself in the mirror, trying to decide wether or not to shave, Dean sees his scar out of the corner of his eye. When he looks at the reflection of his shoulder directly he starts to hurt. He hadn't expected to feel so strongly, and his reaction to the pain is anger.

When Bobby hears a crash and a shattering of glass, he jumps up from his bed and comes running down the hall to the bathroom.

"You okay in there, son?"

"Go away Bobby," came the reply.

"No. Unlock the door. I'm coming in."

Dean does as he's told, leaving bloody fingerprints on the door handle. When the door comes open Bobby's eyes go wide as he looks at the mess in his bathroom. There are pieces of mirror, and blood everywhere. Dean is sitting on the floor covered in blood, looking up at Bobby nonchalantly, as if to say, "Yeah, I did this, so what?" When Bobby tries to figure out where all the blood is coming from, he notices that its dripping from Dean's right palm. The bottom of his jeans are already soaked through.

"What were you thinking, boy?"

Bobby didn't wait for an answer to his question, he just goes to one of the hall closets and pulls out a first aide kit. When he returns to the bathroom Dean lets him bandage his hands. Once he's finished, Dean asks for him to go in a calm, polite manner that kind of worries the older hunter. When Bobby doesn't remove himself from Dean's general vicinity, he shouts, "Leave! Now!"

Bobby leaves to get Sam, hoping that he can talk his stubborn brother off the ledge. Sam was already on his way up from the basement from where he had been sleeping. He had heard the shouting. When the two meet in the hallway, Bobby tries to hurriedly explain what has happened. Sam walks up to Dean, towering above him, and says very calmly, "Get up Dean."

When Dean doesn't move or answer he bends down and gets in Dean's face, "GET UP! NOW!"

Dean is surprised with his brother's tone. Weren't you suppose to be kinder to mental patients? He gets up as ordered and limps down the hall, tracking blood on the hardwood from his cut foot. He goes as far as the kitchen table, and sits down. A scowling Sam follows, sitting across from him.

"What was this all about?"

Dean responds by rubbing his hand over the handprint on his left arm. Sam understood. Sam gets up from the table, and rummages around in the bag where he keeps his laptop, then he reaches in his pants for a folding knife, and cuts into the bag. Dean didn't see what he had in his hand untill Sam places the object on the table. Its a girls engagement ring.

"Its not as permanent as a scar, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it. I'm sorry your hurting without Cas," Sam says, "but if you ever scare the crap out of Bobby and me again, I'll beat the snot out of you."

Dean nods as Sam picks up his foot, and starts working on cleaning the wound.

0-0-0-0

Dean struggled with getting over Cas. Every morning for about a month Dean wanted to smash every mirror he saw. Not only was he forced to look at the palm print in the shower, but he couldn't stand to look at his own reflection. He felt that he should have been able to get through to Cas before he had destroyed himself.

Dean is sitting at a bar one night when he makes the decision to have a heart to heart with his kid brother. Sammy keeps reminding him that he's there for that sort of thing. Dean takes another gulp of his beer and asks, "How do you deal with the guilt?"

It takes Sam a second for his mind to get on topic but then he says, "A lot of people have guilt over a loved one's death. You have to be real with yourself. The reason why Jesse is dead is because she was with me. Technically it's not really my fault though. I was ignorant of Brady's plans. Either way I still use to feel guilty whenever I thought of her. But now I know for a fact, thanks to aphrodite, that Jess doesn't blame me. In fact, Jesse says that she wouldn't change a thing, even if she had known how it was going to end. I know that I loved her. That's all I could have done.. Let me ask you something. How did you deal with the guilt of Dad?"

"Mm," Dean says as he swallows another mouthful of beer, "I got mad at Dad, and took it out on my baby. Either way, I figured that it doesn't matter now. Hell was determined to get their hands on us. Now I'm kind of thankful that I didn't have to endure his dissappointed stare when he came to the realization that I started the apocolypse. If Dad hadn't gone first, we never would have gotten revenge on yellow eyes. I just hope that he made it to heaven all right."

Dean gets the attention of the bartender, and puts up two fingers to indicate that they need more beer. He then takes the last swig, and says, "I should have been able to stop Cas."

The beers arive, and they thank the server. Sam turns to Dean and says, "That's bullshit, and you know it. Heck, you didn't even remember the shit that went down between you guys."

"Memory or no memory I should have said something to convince him!"

"Its still bullshit, Dean. I told you that you have to be real with yourself. At the time, Cas thought he was doing the right thing. Neither you, nor I could have made him think otherwise! He made the mistake, not you. We know what its like to make a mistake. But what's done is done. Cas is gone."

The last part was said with as much sensitivity as Sam could muster. Dean was glaring down at the table's surface.

"And where do you think he's gone?"

Sam didn't have an answer to that. It just dawned on him that Dean couldn't even find comfort in the fact that Cas was in a better place. They knew all along that angels could die. But they had never really stopped to ponder where they went when they died, that is, untill now.

"We have never really had much reason to take comfort in science, but according to physics energy is never really destroyed, it just changes into something else. So, we just have to have faith that if humans have a heaven angels do to."

Dean snorts with mirth finding it ironic. "Yeah, like the way normal folk have faith in the shit we've already seen?"

Sam smirks, and Dean sighs. Dean takes another swallow of beer, trying to chase away the tears that threaten, saying, "Even if angels have a heaven, you know, I'll probably never see him again."

"We need something stronger," Sam responds.

"Yep."

Sam gets up to get a double scotch for his brother. Two guys walk in, and Dean follows them with his eyes. He had noticed that they had been holding hands when they had walked in. They went up to the bar to order a few drinks and say hi to a few friends. Dean watches them as they sit close to each other, and exchange a few light touches during conversation. They don't make it obvious that their gay. Their fingernails aren't painted pink, and their hair isn't highlighted. They're even wearing normal clothes. Eventually, the guy who's sitting closer to Dean feels eyes on the back of his head. He turns and spots Dean in his booth, and whispers in his boyfriend's ear.

Dean tries to turn his attention to something else, so he doesn't seem like a creepy homophobe bigit. Nothing keeps Dean's attention better than the two men though, so he can't help glancing back over and over again. He doesn't know why he's so facinated, except maybe that it makes him feel less like a girl to have loved a guy. He always saw guys with tight pants, girlie walks, and that voice that he dubbs "the gay accent" and can hardly reconsile who he is with that lifestyle.

When Sam comes back to the table with two shots, and another beer for himself, Dean is thankful for the distraction. The talk turns to old cases, and they remember old friends or even complete strangers that they've lost along the way. Finally it looks like Sammy's eyes are drooping, and most of the clientel have left the bar.

"It's okay Sammy, you don't have to babysit me. I'm fine. Why don't you take the Impala, and get some sleep."

"Okay, but what are you going to do?"

"I'll have that hot chic drive me home later," Dean says, spying a hot girl in a skirt sitting at a table with a girlfriend.

When Sam leaves Dean doesn't walk up to the girl. Instead, he walks up to the bar, and sits at the corner. The gay couple, and one guy friend is sitting only one seat away, on the corner of the bar.

He clears his throat and says, "Sorry for staring." He can tell that he's making the one closest to him a little nervous. He also knows that all three were aware of his presence before he even sat down. Great! They probably thought that he was a gay basher come to harrass them.

The middle one spoke up after a second's pause, "apology accepted."

"No matter how I say this, its going to make me sound like a deutschbag, but I want to know something. I thought most gays dressed like your friend there," he said, flicking his hand in the direction of the third guy, "no offense."

"None taken," the guy says with a sarcastic air.

"Anyway," Dean says, giving the guy at the end a once over before looking at his partner, "you guys have some nice kicks."

"Not all guys," the second guy says, interrupting the rude comment that was about to come out of his quick tempered friend's mouth, "like feminine guys. Jack here, and myself are into the more masculine sort."

The guy puts a protective hand around his boyfriend as he speaks. To any casual observer they could have just been friends. This guy Dean liked, because he didn't get offended over questions of sexuality, unlike his friend who obviously still had his panties in a bunch.

"Hm," Dean said, thinking on what the golden eyed boy just said. He waved the bartender over and insisted that he buy all three a round. The drink did a lot to smooth over Marco's feathers, as introductions went around.

"Why were you staring at us before," Alan asked.

Dean was a little embarrassed now. He looked at his beer bottle and said, "Just observing how normal you guys seem. I don't know, its just that guys who flaunt it always kind of bothered me."

"Yet again, no offense Marco, like your hair cut by the way," Dean added belatedly.

Marco didn't seem to take offense this time, he just found it amusing how uncomfortable Dean seemed to get. Alan, as intuitive as ever, knew that there was something their new aquaintance seemed to be hiding. He decided to blirt out his theory, and see how that went.

"Are you in the closet?"

"What? No! What would make you think that?"

Dean looked around to see if there were any witnesses, and the three guys burst out laughing. Dean glared at them. "Its so obvious that your in Narnia," Jack says, which causes everyone to start laughing again, except Dean, who doesn't get the referance.

"I don't get it, what's Narnia?"

They all smile with the shared joke, as Jack explains that Narnia is a fictional place that you find hidden in the back of a wardrobe. Then he said, "So, your sooo in the closet that you've reached Narnia, get it?"

Dean is slightly annoyed, and very embarrassed as he hisses his confession, "I'm bisexual, okay?"

"It all makes sense now," Marco says.

"Who asked you, pinky," Dean asks Marco, refering to the pink patch in his hair.

"Okay, okay," Allan says, playing peacemaker again, "No one is making fun of you, Dean. We've all been in your shoes at one point or another. Heck, I still have to sneak around Jack's dad, because even though he's 'out,' his father likes to pretend that he wasn't there for the revalation."

"Yeah, my dad is in total denial. I work with him at the factory, and even at work, he hardly looks me in the eye anymore. He glares at Alan, every time he's around," Jack confesses.

Dean felt bad for the guy. It must be rough, not being accepted by family. For the first time after his memories came back, Dean realized how lucky he was to have Sam and Bobby to accept him.

"Who was that guy you were with," Jack asks, as a change for subject.

"That's my brother Sam."

"Does he know about you?"

"Yeah, Sammy knows about... It," Dean explains lamely. He was about to say that Sam knew about Cas, but the name got stuck in his throat.

"Bartender! Scotch!"

The bartender comes over quickly and pours him a drink with concern in her eyes. She saw the mist in Dean's eyes and asks, "You alright?"

"Fine," he grunts after downing the shot. She pours him one more, gives him a second beer before hurrying over to another customer. Dean looks at the three and decides to be totally honest with these guys.

"Sammy knows about Cas."

"Was he your first?"

Dean looks Alan in the eye, and says, "He was my only. He's dead now."

Dean looks away then, and the three boys exchange looks. Alan moves closer to Jack.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Alan offers.

The night ends rather quickly after that. The foursome try to change the subject, but they can't shake off all the sadness. Its late anyhow, and Dean ends up splitting a cab with Marco. When the cab stops in front of his hotel, Dean opens the door to leave, but Marco places a hand on his knee.

When Dean turns back he sees sincere sorrow in the guy's eyes, "I know that your still hurting from your loss and its too soon for you to hear this, but one day you'll find that the pain is less. When that day comes, I want you to remember this: It's okay to get back on the horse, you know."

"Yeah.. Thanks Mark," Dean says, really meaning it.


	5. New Friends

_Author's Note: To all the Cas fans, I'm sorry that he was only in the first two (shortish) chapters. I predict that Cas fans will hate Shawn for taking away his Deanie cakes but I plan on making more chapters, and you never know where my imagination will take me, or how this story will evolve. I'm not promising anything to anybody, but I've been running some ideas through my head and you may be pleasantly surprised... I hope. I just hope that I earn a fan along the way. Don't turn that dial! Stay tuned for more Dean deliciousness._

Years later, after Sam and him prevent another disasterous apocalypse Dean is sitting at a bar in Philadelphia. He's chewing on a tiny straw and remembering all the people he's lost. Dean has forced Sam into semi-retirement, taking over Bobby's old job, since Dean couldn't stand the thought of loosing the last family member he had left. Dean is suppose to meet his new hunting partner at eight. It's only five, but he figures that he'll take advantage of the happy hour specials. There's not many people in the bar at the moment, as the door opens, letting in a bright shaft of light, and an attractive male. The guy approaches the bar and orders a rum and coke. He's about the same height as Dean, with a skinnier build. His stomache looks solid, and he has a nice golden tan.

"Man, it has been a long day," the man says to no one in particular. Dean guesses that he's talking to himself.

The guy then looks at Dean who is sitting three seats away. He gets up and sits in the stool right next to Dean, boldly asking, "Can I buy you a drink?"

Dean looks over, and sees the way this guy is looking at him and knows that he's being hit on. This is the first time he's ever been hit on by a guy. He decides to kind of roll with it.

"Sounds fine to me."

"Great. what's your poison?"

"Scotch."

The guy buys him a drink and then Dean asks, "Does that usually work, just strolling into a bar and hitting on a random stranger?"

"Not always. Usually I go to certain clubs where at least half the clientel is known to be gay. I just got lucky this time, I guess. I'm Shawn, by the way."

"Dean."

Shawn looks Dean up and down, and says, "Yep, got _real_ lucky, this time."

Dean smirks at the complement, and asks "You a local?"

"Nope, photographer, here on business."

"No kidding?"

"Yeah, no kidding. You a local?"

"Nope. I'm here on business too."

"Oh, that sucks, I was hoping to meet a cute local who could show me all the _hot spots_ around here."

Shawn's incinuating tones weren't lost on Dean, who had spent a lifetime hitting on women. A smile comes to his lips again, as he responds with, "You are shameless, you know that?"

"I'm sure that I have no idea what you are talking about..."

Dean leaves the bar with cute Shawn, and they take a stroll, talking about their travels (mostly shawn's), and Shawn's work. He's a tour guide book writer. He had been all over the U.S., in parts of the UK, and wrote a magazine artical on Thailand. Soon they find a place where they can buy gelatto, and Dean's new friend insists on stopping in for a treat. By then Dean is a little more comfortable with the guy, and feels safe enough to flirt back a little. When Shawn asks about Dean's job, he doesn't feel like lying, for once, so he tries to skirt the question.

"Oh I don't want to bore you with what I do. Let's just pretend that I'm a secret agent, and I can't talk about it."

Shawn laughs at Dean's response and lets it slide. He assumes that Dean is really in business, and maybe he was sent to philadelphia to talk to a company about a merger, or something.

"Hey, what's that," Dean asks, pointing behind shawn. When the guy looks away, he digs his spoon into Shawn's dessert, stealing some.

When shawn looks back, he asks, "What's what?"

Dean shows him a tight lipped grin, and shawn notices the gelatto on Dean's lip. When he looks down he notices the chunk missing out of his bowl. He glares at Dean, and says, "Hey, that's mine, I want it back!"

When Shawn grabs the side of his head and pulls Dean forward, it kind of catches him off guard. The time between Shawn's declaration, and the kiss was probably only a second, but it didn't take him long to get into the kiss. Shawn enjoyed the taste of cherry cheesecake gelatto in Dean's mouth. It was creamy, cool and delicious. He liked it even more when Dean's tongue invaded his mouth and he started fighting him for dominance, and won. He could already tell that Dean was going to be a passionant lover, and he couldn't help how his hand started wandering up Dean's thigh. Just before Shawn got to the good stuff, Dean jumped back, pulling out his cell phone to check the time.

"Oh, shit. I have to meet up with my business partner in twenty minutes."

Although the excuse was true, it wasn't why he had pulled back. His heart had sunk with guilt at thoughts of the last man he had kissed. He felt guilty about how much he was enjoying Shawn's company. He remembered that guy Marco, from the bar a few years back, and decided to ask for a number before he left, promising to call Shawn tonight.

Dean was a bit late returning to the bar but he didn't worry about it too much. When he walked into the bar, he noticed a woman sitting by herself, and sat down across from her. Sam hadn't mentioned that his new partner was a she-hunter. He had just said that another hunter was looking for help somewhere on a permanent basis, since the partner from before had got himself ganked when they had split up on a case. He had also insisted that it would make him feel better if Dean had someone there to watch his back, even if it wasn't him. Now that he thought about it, it was very suspicious that Sam had avoided using gender based pronouns at all.

"Your the girl Sam sent?"

"Its a pleasure to finally meet the famous Dean. Your a little late, by the way. Your a half hour late, I hope she was worth your time."

For a second, Dean forgot about the phone number on his hand, and asked, "She?"

"Your palm," she reminded him.

"Right.. Well, let's get a drink, shall we?"

After Dean ordered their drinks from the bartender (she ordered a fruity drink so that she could watch Dean's eyebrows go up), he turned his attention back to the woman, and said, "You know who I am, so what's your name?"

"Amelia. My friends call me Mia. Since we'll be working with each other for a while, you can call me that, also."

One of the bartenders brings their drinks and Dean pulls out his holy water flask and pours some in each cup.

"Seriously?"

"I insist," Dean replies.

"Okay," shrugs Mya, as she chugs the cups contents.

"Let's get some things straight," Dean says when she's finished.

"Oh boy, here comes the testosterone parade," Mia complains, with a rolling of her eyes.

"Not exactly. There's just a way that I do things. I'm in charge, and we're going to do things my way-"

"Because I'm a woman."

"No! Because I've been hunting since middle school, and because I have way more experience with more shit than you could even imagine!"

"Oh yeah, you did start an apocalypse, and fail to stop the resurrection of Eve."

Dean shut up before he got angry and started shouting. When Dean finally spoke again, he said, "Yeah, this is going to be a great partnership. I gotta go chew out Sammy, excuse me."

Sam answered on the first ring. He still kept his old cell phone handy just for Dean's phone calls. He wasn't surprised that Dean was calling to complain about Mia, he just expected this call a half hour ago.

"Yeah Dean?"

"How could you do this to me? She's a feminist bitch from hell! She gets defensive about everything, and orders fruity drinks! Come on Sam! I don't really have to work with her, do I?"

"Well I wasn't expecting you to like her right away. All partnerships are a little rough at first. You got to feel each other out, untill you learn to trust each other. I bet you already started in on the 'I'm in charge' speech,"Sam said.

"Did not," came Dean's surly response, which made Sam laugh.

"Well, all I'm saying is that you are controlling and she gets defensive. She's pulling this feminist bullshit, and saying things that hit you where it hurts, because she has her walls up, same as you. She's good at what she does, Dean, it was her partner who was an idiot. Just treat her like a capable hunter, and she won't attack every word you say."

Dean sighed and said, "you suck Sammy," before hanging up.

When Dean went back into the bar Mia was sipping on an appletini.

Dean sat back down, and said, "Oh is that for me?"

Dean decided to use his new found gay side to break the ice. Not too long ago, he would have been too proud to joke about his sexuality, but that was before he had come to terms with it. Dean took a big sip out of the martini glass, and almost spit it out.

Mia started laughing her ass off, when Dean picked up her cup. He was a masculine man with a bombers jacket on, and his big hands made the glass look rediculous. The pinky out gesture is what really sent her over the edge into her fit of giggles.

"Oh, that's terrible," Dean complained, with a squinty eyed look, "I hate gin."

"Okay, now that we've broken the ice, can you stop with that defensive shit now," Dean asked, as Mia's laughs came under control, and rolled to a stop.

"I'll try," she answered.

0-0-0-0

Dean and Mia's first hunt didn't go as smoothly as he'd hoped, but they were working on it. Dean had called Shawn when he was on the way back from the hunt, with Mia on the passenger side. He didn't say anything incriminating. All she knew was that he was meeting someone back at his place.

"Is that an army man on the back door," Mia asked as soon as Dean got off the phone.

Dean smiled, he rarely noticed the little toy anymore. It was just part of the Impala. Now that she mentioned it he couldn't help but remember the day Sam had stuck it there.

"Yeah," Dean responded.

"Why is there an army man in your door?"

"Sammy put it there when we were kids."

"So you inherited this car from your father?"

"Yeah, she's been through a lot."

There was a pause, and then Dean said, "There's also legos in the air duct. That's why I ride with the windows down most of the time. Its not worth hearing the rattle. It's less noticable with the heater running. So, yeah, if you hear a rattle in the winter months, its not because she's a clunker. Its just legos."

Mia laughed, seeing his smile. She wished that she had family like that. She had emancipated herself when she was sixteen.

0-0-0-0

When Shawn arrived at Dean's hotel, he was wearing a blue plaid button down with dark slacks, and fancy shoes. There was a silver chain around his neck, and a small hoop earing in his right ear. Shawn smiled at Dean as he spotted him from down the hall. When he finally was within greeting distance, he just waved, thinking that Dean wasn't the hugging other dudes type.

"I have plans for us this evening. I'm suppose to go to an art museum, and then maybe a nightclub, if you feel up to it."

"Yeah, sure. I have a monkey suit in my closet."

"Well, nothing too fancy. You have to be able to dress down for the nightclub," Shawn said, as he followed Dean into his room.

Dean enjoyed himself at the museum; not because he enjoyed the art but because of the company. He tried to apreciate the significance of each painting, both historical and abstract, but most of it was just nonsense to him. He behaved himself, and didn't scarf down food or chew gum the way he had once before. He had only behaved that way because he wanted to annoy Bela. Shawn took pictures of all the people mulling around, a few statues and the whine glasses on a tray, but most of their time was spent trying to learn the history of the building, and the selection on display.

At the nightclub, they were allowed to enter the VIP section and skip the line when Shawn showed the bouncers a special pass given to him by the owners. Shawn spent longer getting all the right angles for his photographs this time. Then after that they had time to themselves. They got a few drinks: Dean kept making Shawn drink purple nurples with him, remembering his experience from when they first ran into Gabriel. Most of their time was spent up stairs talking with the VIP's. Since Dean had never danced with another dude before, he didn't even want to suggest it. Shawn did insist on going downstairs to enjoy the energy of the crowd after a while, though.

Dean had already flirted with three women. He kept touching Shawn whenever he did flirt with girls, mostly keeping his hand on his leg. Two girls flirted back when they noticed that he was with the cute photographer, figuring that there was no harm in talking to a gay guy. The third girl tried to feel Dean up, aparently she thought that bisexual guys were hott. That's when Shawn decided that they should move on. Dean was one of those people who joked around a lot because he felt silly dancing for real. Dean's lady number three eventually found the two and they started dancing together. Dean was grinning from ear to ear when he was made into a Dean sandwich.

After a few hours of dancing, Shawn felt that he was sober enough to drive home, and they left. Dean wasn't so sober since he had continued drink with the woman they were dancing with. Shawn walked Dean to the door and kissed him. It was a gentle, "I had a nice time" sort of kiss. Normally shawn had no problem bringing someone back to his place to have a little fun, but he really liked Dean, and after his constant womanizing tonight, he wasn't completely sure that sex with a man was what he wanted. Dean pulled away from the kiss first, rather abrumptly. Shawn could feel the tense muscles in his arms.

"I'm sorry," Dean said softly.

"What is it," Shawn asked, resigning himself to a rejection.

"Its just- Its Just- I-" Dean stuttered, hating that he even had to go through this explanation. Why couldn't he just shut up, and bring him to bed? Why did this have to be difficult? He had gone back to screwing women, no problem. But this felt different. He guessed it was because he had gone out with this guy on, like, an actual date. Maybe because it wasn't just drunken sex in his mind, it felt like a betrayal to Cas' memory. Maybe a small part of him believed that if he didn't move on Cas would show up in his front door tomorrow, and they could make up for all their missed oppurtunities.

"Are you not really into guys," Shawn asked tentatively

"No! Its just-" Dean backed up and looked at the floor, "The last man I was with.. He died."

There was a paused silence, as Shawn struggled not to show the relief he was feeling. He stepped forward and cupped Deans face in his hands, forcing him to look at him.

"Its okay. We don't have to do this tonight."

"I'm leaving tomorrow," Dean informed him.

"Well, okay. Maybe if we're ever in the same city, or only a few miles from each other, I can come and see you."

"I don't know..."

If shawn was in town while some crazy shit was going down, he could get caught up in it. Or worse yet... What if demons caught on to this little love affair and attacked him in order to get to Dean.

"Why don't you think on it while we head inside and get hydrated?"

That sounded like a good suggestion to Dean, so he let them both inside and headed straight to the little fridge. The only water that Dean had was a gallon of holy water, so he knocked out two birds with one stone.

"So," Shawn said, as soon as they were settled comfortably on the bed (it being the only thing to sit on), "if you don't mind my asking... How did you meet your guy?"

Dean thought about how to tell the truth without revealing any supernatural information. Finally, he decided on a simple statement, "He saved me."

Dean hoped that the guy wouldn't ask how, and was relieved with the response, "So he was your knight and shining armor? That's rather romantic."

Dean laughed, "Something like that. It wasn't like that in the beginning."

"So was he your first? Or was it that you were his?"

What was it with gay guys and their assumptions that it wasn't just that they had been two gay men in a platonic relationship that turned into something else? Dean gritted his teeth.

"It was both, actually," he admitted, slightly embarrassed to admitt that he was inexperienced.

"Awwww," shawn crooned.

"Oh, stop that!"

Shawn laughed at Dean's embarrassment, and got wacked with a pillow for his troubles. After he was done laughing over getting hit with a pillow, Shawn let the silence fall before he spoke again.

"So you loved him, huh?"

"Yeah," Dean said with a rough voice, "but I never told him."

"Were you friends for a long time?"

"Yes, he was like family."

"Then he most definitly knew," Shawn assured Dean.

"Yeah, I guess so. Thanks. Thanks for telling me that."

Dean was oddly assured that it was true. Maybe Cas did know that he had loved him. He had once declared Cas "family". He didn't think that Cas would interpret his actions as anything less than what they were. Aphrodite had said that Cas had did his best to protect him when he had tried to erase his memories, so he knew that despite Cas' rebellion that later ended in his demise, Cas returned the feelings.

Tears came to Dean's eyes. Dean had thought that he was over these kinds of feelings, but aparently not, as hot tears fell down his cheeks. Dean tried to look away from Shawn, worrying that he wouldn't like him after seeing him cry like a woman. That's not how it was at all, though, as Shawn grabbed his shoulder. He tried to get Dean to turn towards him rather than away, but he wasn't budging. Instead he held him from his back, as he began to cry.

Shawn ended up sleeping over. Nothing had happened between the two men except for sleep. Dean had at least stripped down to his briefs, but he adamently refused to remove his shirt. He didn't want to have to explain the scar on his shoulder, or tell the same damn lie he gives to his one night stands.

0-0-0-0

A few hours later, Dean is shaken awake from his nightmares. His nightmare had been about the day Cas had died. He hadn't had the nightmare in such a long time, but he supposed talks of Cas last night had made it come back for a night. Cas' last promise echoed in his head, "I'm going to find a way to redeem myself to you."

'You didn't make it up to me, Cas. Your gone... And I don't know where you went' he thought.

Dean's head was on shawn's chest, and he kept it there, waiting for his heart rate to return to normal. Before anything could be said a knock came from the door. Dean shot up from the bed with an exclamation of 'oh shit', and hurried to the door in his crinckled dress shirt and underwear. When he looked through the peep hole he saw his new partner on the other side. He opened the door just a crack, so that she could see his face but not much else.

"I know that you probably just woke up, but I'm an early riser. Can I come in? Or do you still have company this morning?"

"More like the latter, but..." Dean thought for a second, there was no way that Shawn would be able to sneak out now that Mia was already here. Unfortunately the back door was alarmed, and if she didn't see a single lady leaving the hotel, she would ask suspicious questions later. He might as well let her know now, if he was ever planning on bringing her into his inner circle.

Dean sighed then said, "Let us get dressed, and then we can all go down to breakfast."

"Okay," Mia agrees, "Is she as pretty as me?"

"Yes, much more attractive. Minus the bitch attitude, too," Dean responds.

When Dean closed the door again, he rushed over to Shawn and said, "Hurry up and shower. She doesn't know that I'm bi, but I guess now is as good a time as any."

0-0-0-0

Mia waited in the lobby for Dean. When he came down the stairs from his room she wondered where his date was. When Dean approached her seat, the **guy** who followed behind Dean stopped to stand in front of her too. It finally dawned on her that **he** had to have been his hott date from last night. Mia's reaction was to laugh, even though Dean's glare warned her not to. She just threw her head back and started cackling like the wicked witch of the west. When she looked back at the two of them, there were tears in her eyes, and her stomache muscles hurt.

"If you discuss this with _anybody_ other than my brother, I will hunt you down and kill you. That's a promise."

In that moment Shawn was kind of scared of Dean because he looked like he was more than capable of murder. Looking at Mia's now sober face Dean seemed satisfied that she was taking him seriously. He turned right and started walking off into the cafeteria, declaring, "Let's eat."

When the two fell into line behind Dean, Mia turned to Shawn and asked, "So... Do you know what he does for a living?"

"Not exactly. Dean said that he didn't want to bore me with the details."

Mia showed no inclination towards wanting to clue Shawn in. She just had a closed lip grin on her face, and a mischivous glint in her eye. Just before they sat down, she said, "Dean may find what we do boring, but I find it interesting."

The mysterious air made Shawn very curious now. Mia knew that her comment would peak the guys interests, that's why she had said it. Mia quickly excused herself, promising to return with plates and coffee enough for the three of them.

"Oh tea please," Shawn interjected before she could leave.

"Is there any kind in particular that you prefer," Mia asked, the very picture of helpfulness.

"Oolong or chai if they have any. If not, plain Lipton."

Mia threw Dean a taunting look over Shawns shoulder just before she walked a way. The look seemed to say, "Even his drink choice is gay."

Dean gave a sigh of resignation as his partner went out of earshot, "I wonder how long the teasing will last."

Shawn gave a small chuckle, "She does seem the type. So, what do you do for a living?"

"No big deal, really. I'm a business analysist. I'm practically an over-paid accountant for big companies. Amelia just likes to throw it in my face that I'm a desk jockey. She likes to strip me of my man card, any chance she gets. I think its because of the way I dress on my personal time, and the way I act all tough. She's kind of a feminist bitch."

"How did you come to have that job? Were you a mathlete in school, or something?"

Dean laughed at that, and said, "No. Well, not really. My grades were pretty good, but I wasn't a geek or anything. I was a punk who made out with too many girls."

"I can definitely see that."

"Yeah. Well, when I graduated from high school my dad wanted me to follow in his footsteps and be a mechanic. My mom wasn't having any of that, so she made me go to college. She said that I could do anything I wanted, but preferably she wanted me to make lots of money. She always wanted more for her boys than she ever got."

Dean was almost amazed of how quick a liar he had become. The entire story that he had just told shawn was practically made up on the spot. The only thing that was true was the fact that his partner was a feminist bitch, and his mom had wanted a better life for him and Sam. She just hadn't lived long enough to prevent them from falling into the family business.

When Mia came back she was carrying three plates and a tray with hot drinks like a pro. Dean's plate was the one with all the meat on it.

"Aww all my favorite things," Dean teased.

"Yeah well, your brother told me that you live off animal flesh and have had a running love affair with pie since before he could remember. There's no pie anywhere in this place but I hope a syrup soaked waffle would be almost as good."

"You know, I'm glad your not as terrible a person as you seemed in the beginning."

"I'll take that as a compliment, considering it comes from the president of the emotionally stunted league."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but were you a waitress in a past life, or something? What was up with that balancing act that you had going on?"

"If you must know, yes, I was a waitress for many years."

"While you went to college, you mean..." Shawn interjected.

"Oh yeah, before college."

'She may be a better liar than I am' Dean thought, 'She didn't even bat an eye.'

"Have you been talking crap about me while I've been away?"

Dean neatly translated that to, "What did you tell him about our jobs?" Their communication was coming along just fine.

"Not really. I was just telling Shawn here that we're business analysists, and that we're just pretty much over-paid accountant desk jockeys. Oh yeah, and I also might have mentioned that your an over-bearing feminist bitch, which is true."

That sent Mia into a fresh fit of laughter. For the rest of breakfast Shawn enjoyed watching the banter between co-workers. They talked about whose car they were going to drive on their way to their next meeting. Dean won the arguement just by being stubborn. He called his car his baby, which Shawn thought was cute. They also mentioned Dean's brother on occasion. Aparently Mia had been friends with Sam before she started working with Dean. Dean called his brother all sorts of names including whining bitch, girl, and pansy ass. Despite all the harsh name calling, Shawn could tell that he cared about his brother very much. At some point Mia marveled about how Dean made fun of Sam's masculinity all the time when he was at least straight. Dean explained that sexuality and masculinity wasn't the same thing.

Dean had placed his left hand on Shawn's knee underneath the table, and he had slowly moved it up his leg inch by inch untill he was massaging Shawn's crotch through the fabric of his jeans. Shawn didn't want to be rude, and leave in the middle of all the laughter and conversation but he was starting to become embarrassed about his growing erection.

"Okay, I have a boat race to get to in an hour," Shawn said all of a sudden.

Dean's facial expression only twitched slightly to show his amusment before he was all polite interest. His hand, thank God, had stopped what it had been doing and was back at mid-thigh. Shawn had to discretly untuck his shirt before getting up from the table.

At the entrance to the hotel, Shawn shook hands with Mia and exchanged the usual pleasantries. As soon as his partner was heading to her car Dean grabbed Shawn close and kissed him. He took his time, being very thorough. When Dean pulled back from the kiss, they were still pressed together as he whispered in Shawn's ear, "I'll call you tomorrow. Promise."

Shawn was still feeling breathless and weak kneed as Dean and Mia drove away. He hadn't felt this way about anybody in a very long time, and they hadn't even slept together...

Dean got a phone call when he was getting on the highway. It was Mia. Dean put the phone to his ear. She didn't start the conversation with hello or anything, she just started talking about what was on her mind.

"What was with the abrumpt exit from breakfast?

"Nothing, I was just messing with him."

"You mean like under the table?"

"Yeah," Dean said with a little chuckle.

There was a slight pause and then, "You know, it kind of makes me feel better that you have your little secret. It makes me think that your not as big a deutschbag as I thought you were."

"Why?"

"Well, I kind of think it takes courage for a man like you to be gay, and admitting it to me today took some guts too."

"Let's get one thing straight, I'm bi. I still like some pussy on the side."

"You just lost some points there."

"And I'm okay with that." Dean responded before hanging up.

Dean and Mia made it to Bobby's (or Sam's) by evening. They had dinner and spent the night. Sam had cooked a fancy seafood pasta with scallops, shrimp, and muscles. Dean looked at his bowl with a raised eyebrow.

"Try it. You might like it," came Sam's reply when he saw that Dean wasn't touching his silverware.

"I've already had muscles, I just don't have a great liking of them, but that's not why I gave my food that look."

"What then?"

"You are such a girl."

Dean's words set off a whole lecture on healthy eating and how Sam didn't want to die of a hamburger induced heart attack. Mia stayed out of the arguement and dug in, pretending that she was in a fancy restuarant by the sea and not stuck between two bickering brothers in South Dakota. Dean and Mia left in the morning to go handle some trouble in California. They left Mia's car behind.


	6. Party For Two

_Author's note: Things are a little more graphic in Dean's sex life. So if you don't like it don't read. But if your not into it, I don't think you would've made it this far. Um... there's also dirty talk. N two new characters get it on. This is a chapter for my pervy peeps, and kappas out there. Enjoy! ;)_

Three weeks had passed before Dean was able to meet up with his (kinda) boyfriend again. After that, Dean was kind of surprised at how much he was able to see Shawn. They usually weren't in the same place at the same time, but they sometimes would be within a few hour's ride of each other, and Shawn would come to visit him after his hunts. Dean sometimes would walk off from a fight with a monster and have bruises or cuts. Shawn never mentioned anything.

Dean had been going steady with the guy for five long months, but they hadn't had sex yet. Shawn and him went on a lot of dates. Sometimes they would spend an extra day in town after a hunt and spend the day at a fair, festival, bar, nightclub or even a party in someone's barn. Shawn was always good at getting private invites at special events. Sometimes he would volunteer photo services for free. Sometimes, all it took was his charm. Dean was learning quick that chicks were a whole lot nicer to gay guys, especially gay couples.

As Mia got comfortable around Dean she let her personality shine through. When the three of them went out for a night on the town, she would find friends in almost every town she went. She had always been a natural people magnet in her private life. She would sometimes introduce Shawn and Dean to whole groups of people, and on occasion she would go home with a man.

The night Dean decided to take his relationship to the next level they were in Cobalt, Kentucky. Shawn had been taking pictures of a state park, after renevations, and Dean had found a vampire nest. There really wasn't much to do in Cobalt, except go to a country bar. Shawn and Dean kept their hands to themselves, for the most part, acting like they were just friends because they weren't sure about people in Kentucky. They were afraid of linch mobs. Dean just drank his beer and watched as Shawn made friends on the dance floor. Shawn also tried to teach Mia how to side step, which had some hilarious results in practice. She kept getting her feet trod on when she tried to step back while everyone else walked right. When Dean felt that he had spent enough time listening to crappy music he dragged Shawn back to the Inn. When they left the bar, it looked like Mia was having a good time with a tall cowboy.

At the Inn they had one tiny little hallway to themselves. Dean had the room on the end, Shawn had the one next to it, and Mia slept just across the hall. When Shawn paused in between the two doors, ready to have the usual nightly discussion, Dean pushed him against the wall, with a little force. Dean looked into Shawn's eyes for a moment, and he knew that Dean was finally ready. The kiss that followed definitly left Shawn all hot and bothered.

Once the door was unlocked they were racing to take the clothes off each other and themselves, stumbling towards the bed. At some point, Shawn spotted the scar on Dean's shoulder, despite Dean's attempts to distract him with kisses. Shawn didn't stop to discuss it but the look he gave Dean promised that he would ask later. Instead, Shawn kissed his skin slowly from his right shoulder all the way to the left, ending right next to the first finger of the handprint. When he raised his lips to Dean's they started to take their time, laying down on top of the sheets with their boxers on. After several minutes of exploring each others bodies with fingers, lips and teeth, neither one of them could take it anymore.

"I need you to.." Shawn panted.

"I know," Dean answered.

Dean hopped off the bed real quick to grab condoms and lube from his duffle. The cold air made shawn shiver, and goosebumps popped up in places where Dean had licked his skin. When Dean got back, he stripped off his last article of clothing and lay on top of his boyfriend, skin to skin. He kissed Shawn but then started laughing a little.

"When did you get butt naked," he asked.

Shawn laughed too, "I dunno. Shut up and give me that."

Shawn snatched the condom out of Dean's hand and ripped it open with his teeth. He then placed the condom on his lips and shoved Dean back on the bed. Dean had never had anyone place a condom on him by mouth and was intrigued. Shawn then proceeded to roll the rubber all the way down the shaft of his bedmate's cock, giving it a few licks and sucks while he was at it. The taste wasn't that great, but he didn't mind. When Shawn looked up he saw that Dean had his eyes closed, and his stomache muscles looked a little tensed up. He was still holding the lube bottle which surprised him because it was pink.

"Its pink because its strawberry," Dean said defensively as he felt Shawn tug the bottle out of his hand.

Shawn just smiled as he applied the delicious goop to Dean's member and put it in his mouth. Dean lay back as he groaned, and Shawn started to lightly stroke himself as he worked on his partner's pleasure. At some point Shawn heard some mumbling but he didn't stop what he was doing untill the condom was clean again. He applied a more generous amount of lube and climbed up to straddle Dean, and slowly sat down, untill he had all of him inside. They had both groaned at the first contact.

"Oh shit," commented Dean.

"So what were you saying while I was down there," Shawn asked.

"I was hoping you hadn't noticed."

"Well, I did. So what did you say?"

"I'd rather not-"

Dean didn't get to finish his sentence because Shawn had lifted himself up a little bit and came back down, making him hiss. Shawn kept asking what he had said during the blowjob, but Dean didn't want to say. Every time he refused to answer, Shawn lifted himself and sat back down. It became a sort of sweet torture. The movement was enough to keep him turned on, and hard, but nowhere near enough to get him off. Finally, Dean couldn't take much more, so he told him.

"H-hot lips," Dean admitted while shawn started in on the downward stroke.

Dean almost wanted to hide his face in the pillows, but Shawn didn't call him weird. The look in his eye said that he was into it. And he was. Shawn had been around the block a time or two, so he knew that it was a rare guy who was really into sex talk. If he did hear any words during sex it was the usual curses of shit, fuck or "oh my God". He liked it when someone called him names, and begged or commanded more.

"Mm-hm," Shawn said, "What else?"

So they went over all the dirty things that Dean had said, and as a reward, Shawn kept up a slow steady rythm. Dean didn't remember most of what he had mumbled to himself, so he started making some of it up. Either way it was probably close enough. Shawn started rubbing himself again, as he started getting harder with every dirty, sexy and fucked up word that came out of Dean's mouth. He closed his eyes as he thought back on how good Dean's fat cock had felt in his mouth, reliving the sensual thrill of every lick. Dean enjoyed the show, watching this cute boy ride him up and down with a small smile on his lips.

"Oh fuck."

Shawn looked down at his lover, ready to hear some more.

"Your ass is so tight," Dean said, gasping as Shawn came down on him a little harder than before.

"Yeah?"

"Oh yeah baby and so fucking hot. Oh man you feel _so _good."

"Oh yeah? Do you like it when I fuck you baby?"

The rythm becomes faster as Dean places his hand on Shawn, twisting his wrist with the motion, and massaging the tip with his thumb.

"Do you like my cock up your ass?"

"Yes," Shawn moans to the ceiling. Dean starts asking questions, and to every one Shawn moans or whimpers a yes. Do I have a fat cock? Do you like my fat cock? On and on he went. He even asked questions that most people may have taken offense to, but it seemed that the more offensive the comments became the more turned on Shawn seemed to get. Dean had even asked if Shawn was a bitch, and he had responded with, "Yes I'm your bitch."

Shawn even looked Dean in the eye as he insulted himself. He almost came right there and then, but kept himself in check, as he wanted Shawn to finish first. Dean could be called anything, except a selfish lover. "_Your_ bitch" became the phrase of the evening, "your" being the operative word. Dean guessed that _belonging_ to him was what finally got him off, as Shawn's first shot glided over his head in an explosive orgasm. Dean was only one thrust behind him, as he slammed kind of violently into Shawn's ass.

Mia had just made it to her room with her cowboy friend when she heard a breathy yell from Dean's room. She dropped her keys noisily to the floor, complaining loudly about being drunk and clumsy, hoping that her date hadn't heard the slight sound of male on male pleasure. Paul helped her with the keys and the door, seeming to have not noticed, or deciding to ignore it.

Paul, always the gentleman, asked if she was sure she was sound enough to make the decision to have sex. It took a few minutes to convince the guy that she truly wanted to do him, and that it wasn't the beer talking. When he was convinced he just gave a quick nod.

"Does that mean your convinced?"

"Sure does darling."

He gave her a once over with his eyes that wasn't too quick. His eyes stayed at hip and breast level for a while. When his eyes went back up to her face, a slow smile spread across his. She had noticed him do that earlier and had thought it real cute.

"So, city gurl," he drawled, "you want the hat on or off?"

That set Mia off into a fit of giggles. When she had finished laughing Paul leaned in and kissed her. When he backed her up against the bed she took off his hat and hung it off the corner of the footboard. She would rather be able to run her hands through his hair than play cowboy and Indian.

Paul made love to her. Mia wondered if he would have ravaged her if she'd kept the hat on. Instead Paul was very gentle, holding her to him and ghosting his rough hands over her smooth back. His fings paused over a horizontal scar at the base of her back. He traced it, and then went back up her back, over her shoulders and slowly around the curve of her breast. Paul was very preportionate without being too big.

When they had both finished they cleaned up their mess and lay next to each other. Mia enjoyed being cradled next to him, as she laid her head on his slightly hairy chest.

"You can stay the night if you'd like," Mia said tentatively.

"I'd like," he simply agreed.

Mia changed into PJ's, quickly checked the salt line on the window, and then lay back down with her man. They talked about all sorts of things while they cuddled. She talked about her early years, since her hunter years weren't safe to talk about, and she learned that he had a doctorate in philosophy. When she asked him why he got such a high degree in such an impractical subject, he shrugged and said that he had gotten a full scholarship to play football at UM. All he wanted to do was to take over his father's farm, and grow old in a small town. His mama had insisted he take the oppurtunity to see the world a bit, so he did. The only thing that he could truly find an interest in was Philosophy, so he majored in it. He enjoyed it so much that he got a masters, and doctorate degree at a college a little closer to home. When he returned home, everyone said that he had gotten a thinking degree. They shook their heads and said what a waiste of an oppurtunity that was and went about their business, as usual. He said that he had been a daydreamer all his life. Why they expect that to stop just because he had gone to a fancy school in some big city, he didn't know.

Paul talked about mud mucking in ATV's as a teen, and his favorite horse at the farm. He told her that he still talked to his friends from school, who for the most part, went to get big fancy jobs and followed their dreams. He had followed his dream of being a farmer, and while it wasn't making him rich and it was a back breaking job, he was alright with his lot in life. He said that he liked to dance with pretty ladies at the bar, and that she was the best entertainment he had had in a long time.

She got him to show her how smart he was by teaching her about the great philosophers of old. He lit up when he spoke about philosophy because "nobody apreciates that kind of think round here". He explained everything so well, and he had a great memory when it came to his studies. Mia felt both smarter, and dumber from listening to him. She felt smart because she understood it all and was able to have imput for the conversations that didn't sound half bad. He praised her for having brains like a philosopher. She also felt a little stupid because she felt a little intimidated by people like Socrates. She didn't usually ponder the universe like he did. Philosophy was a tiring subject to contemplate, and soon Mia grew tired.

Eventually Mia fell asleep, soothed by this guy's baritone voice. Soon after he felt her relax into slumber, Paul stopped talking and thought about how beautiful the woman beside him was untill the sandman came to ease him into dreamland.

0-0-0-0

The next morning, Mia and Paul both woke early, even before the sunrise. They had sleepy sex, as Paul helped her to undress and mount up. He put his hands underneath her to help keep her balanced and to keep her motions at a steady pace. In his sleep soaked mind, Paul was very turned on by the slick juices coming from her sugar bowl. It wasn't long before Mia finished, enjoying the soft, long-lasting pressure of her early morning orgasm, her favorite kind.

Paul started thrusting slightly harder after Mia's finally. He wanted to feel that delicate shudder go through her body, one more time before he released. Mia gasped with each thrust, as Paul's member sent ripples of pleasure through her super sensitive flesh. A moan escaped her lips. It was the kind of moan that sounded like someone begging for release. If Mia had been fully aware of the sounds she was making, she would know that she had never made them before. Her head was tilted back, with her lips parted slightly to let her tiny gasps of pleasure escape her lips. Her back was straight as her hips mechanically went up and down to meet each thrust. She was ablivious to everything but the fireworks going off inside her head, and the shots of fire that went through her pussy with every thrust. It all felt like a super long orgasm, but when the real orgasm came, she felt that she had to shout or she would die of sensory overload. She screamed her lovers name as her walls of flesh clenched tight over Paul's invading member.

Paul released his seed as the goddess on top of him screamed out his name. While she had needed to shout, his body did the opposite, trying to keep everything in, even his breathe. He let out a shuttering breath as he waited for the convulsions in his cock to stop. Mia slumped forward after all the pressure had been released from her body. She was all quivery and weak after. It seemed that every muscle in her body had clenched up with that last orgasm. Paul pulls her down to his chest, and then rolls her over so that they can lay side by side and stare at each other.

"If I didn't know any better, I would swear your an Incubus," Mia declared.

Paul laughed one of his big belly laughs, and teased, "And since your such an expert, how do you know that I'm not?"

"Well, for one, an Incubus wouldn't use a condom, because they like their women pregnant," she pointed out, and in her head she added, 'and you passed over my devil's trap.'

"True enough, I guess."

"I like you Cobalt," Mia admitted.

"Cobalt?"

"Yeah... I travel a lot with my job, so I have a hard time having long-term relationships. But when I meet a guy I truly like, I name him after the town in which we meet."

"Well, then I guess I'm honored, little bit."

"Little bit?" Mia crinkles her nose at the name.

"Yes, well, being six foot four, I rarely meet people taller than me. I sometimes call girls short one, or small stuff, but I only call the ones I care for little bit."

"Well, I guess that's okay then. If I give you my number, will you call me on occasion, Cobalt?"

"Most certainly. Now let's rest for a little while longer. I'll have to leave soon, for the farm, but I would like to hold you till then."

By seven-o-clock, Paul and Mia got up, and got ready for the day. Mia walked Paul down to the front porch, and kissed him good-bye. When she arrived in the banquet room Shawn was sitting at the table, sipping tea, while other guests mulled around him. She sat down across from him, and asked, "Dean sleeping in?"

"Yeah," Shawn answered, sounding a little sullen.

Mia was about to ask Shawn what was wrong, when he beat her to the punch. He looked right at her, with his sad and tired eyes and asked, "How did Cas die?"

"That was way before I knew the Winchester's, so I don't know. You'll have to ask Dean. Why do you ask?"

"Its just something he said in his sleep. Never mind though, I'm going to take a cup of coffee up to Dean."

Shawn didn't ask Dean about how Cas had died, and he skillfully hid his hurt about anything his lover had said in his sleep. He didn't want the guy to feel bad about anything he couldn't help. It was a little understandable that he dreamt of Cas every now and then. Dean had already told him that Cas and him had only just become a couple before his death. There would have been, understandably, more than enough unresolved issues. If Shawn was honest with himself, though, it felt a lot more like rejection to him. Of course he had hoped that Dean would be dreaming about him after one very incredible night. Why did he have to be falling after a man, who was, for all intensive purposes, a widower?

Shawn had to be in New York for his next photo shoot. He had some very great contacts who had got him a gig at some special even for the New York City governor. So soon after he gently woke Dean, Shawn was on the road again trying to forget his sorrows with a little bit of music. Unfortunatly a lot of music out there, and on his ipod was about love. It was going to be a long drive.


	7. The Shit Hits the Fan

After Cobalt, Dean was playing phone tag with his man for a week. Whenever he called, the phone would ring untill it hit the voicemail. Text messages were only answered hours after they were received. He got a call late in the evening five days after Cobalt, and it was Shawn yelling over loud music in the backround. He was saying something about how he was very busy, and his phone had started acting funny after he had accidently dropped it in a puddle. It didn't ring even half the time when it was receiving a call, and there seemed to be a delay with texting. He said that he had just called so that Dean wouldn't think he was blowing him off, and then hung up.

Dean tried to ignore the paranoid feeling that he did something wrong, as he hunted monster after monster with Mia. Mia didn't mention the conversation she had had with Shawn before he left to New York. She thought that it wasn't really her place to bring it up. She figured that she'd let Shawn deal with things as he saw fit.

Shawn knew that he was avoiding Dean. His phone wasn't broken and he had called him during a concert he had gone to with a friend so that he could avoid answering awkward questions. He was just trying to work out his feelings about what had happened the morning after sex with Dean. He had a hard time deciding on wether he was going to dump the guy. What if he came second to the memory of a Cas? Would he take the risk with his heart?

At the end of the week, Shawn figured that he wouldn't be able to avoid Dean much longer without him getting suspicious so he started talking to him again. He still hadn't come to a decision, one way or another, but if he still wanted to keep the option of staying with Dean open he knew that he'd have to start talking to him again. He would lie to Dean about where he was. Even after he had left a city a few days before, he'd say that he was staying a little longer. That way he could reduce the chances of running into Dean. Twice Shawn had to say that he had already moved on when Dean was in his area. He lied about taking a plane ride to the other coast, once.

When Dean finally ran into Shawn, it wasn't in the best of circumstances. He had been hunting a werewolf through Charleston. Mia had fired a shot in the beast's direction, after jumping over a car. The bullet had missed and hit a civilian in the leg. In her defense, she would have hit the target if the guy hadn't come out of nowhere and gotten in the way. Dean passed his partner up as she checked that the guy she'd hit wasn't in immediate danger of dying. Halfway down the street, the chase took a sharp right down a side street. The werewolf grabbed a guy coming out to empty the trash, and hid behind him. Dean didn't know that the stupid beasts had enough brains to know to hide behind a hostage. Damn Eve! The werewolves had gone back to their lunar cycle habit over the years, but more often than not he found a werewolf that had gotten smart.

Dean didn't have a clear shot, because the thing kept moving and dodging, waiting to see what Dean would do. Finally, it threw a taunting grin over its victim's shoulder and then opened its mouth wide, ready to bite the guy's shoulder. Dean took his shot, it was either now or there'd be two bodies to clean off the streets tonight. He fired, and hit the werewolf in the right side of his stomache. The werewolf threw his hostage in Dean's direction before pelting down the road, getting a little ahead of his persuer.

They were getting to the more populated parts of the city with people heading to dinner at restaurants. The werewolf ran between a big group of people, and started to attack. Dean was still a block behind. He was able to watch the carnage, as he quickened his stride. In a few minutes, the beast was able to strike ten people to the ground. And then Dean was there, and shot it.

Dean aproached the bloody scene, and started looking for bitten survivors. Most of them had obviously fatal wounds. There were people with their throats torn out, twisted necks, and one with claw marks in his chest, where the monster had already begun to rip his heart out. He felt the throat of one guy who was facing down. He had a bite mark in his back, but not much else, as far as he could see. There was a pulse, so Dean shot him, and the other guy next to him. One man started to struggle to get up. He was on the outside of the group. He probably was in the lead, so he didn't get as fucked up as all his friends.

"Are you bitten," he asked the man.

"What? Bitten- I- What-?"

The man was understandably confused, but Dean felt that he didn't have time for this. He had just ran four blocks, and chased the damn thing up and down a fire escape. It had zig zagged behind light poles, parked cars, and bus benches, anything to keep its ass from being shot. It use to take a whole lunar cycle to turn a person into one of these things, but now a person could change in a matter of hours. Dean got a little impatient.

Dean shouted, "Have you been bitten?"

When the guy still lay there in shock, staring uncomprehendingly, Dean commanded him to lift up his shirt. With a little more encouragement, the guy raised his shirt, and where the gash in the shirt had been lay teeth marks. The guy looked at his stomach in confusion, wondering why a dude would bite him of all things, Dean bet. Dean walked up to the guy, he had dark hair, thick eyebrows, a little bit of a belly and pale blue eyes. There was already sweat on the guy's brow as he grew feverish with the fast change. When Dean lifted his gun, he apologized. The pale blue eyes were opened wide with fear, and then the guy's head fell back as Dean put a bullet in his head.

"Shit, what is he doing here," Mia asked, as she recognized one of the guys in the group was Shawn. His eyes were wide open, and he had just witnessed Dean killing four people.

Dean's eyes jerked over and spotted his boyfriend sitting on his butt, on the other side of the bodies. He wondered why he hadn't seen him there before now. He guessed it was because he was more focused on the dreaded task of executing would be werewolves. He aproached Shawn slowly, gun back in his holster, ready for a violent reaction. When there was no movement more than a slight flinch, Dean put his hands underneath Shawn's armpits, and lifted him to his feet. Dean placed his hands against Shawn's forehead, looking for fever.

"What are you doin," Shawn asked, pulling his head away from the touch.

"Never mind, is that your blood," Dean wanted to know as he spotted red on the left side of his sweater.

"Yeah," came the response as the searing pain made itself be known, for the first time since shawn's attack.

Shawn's hand went to his shoulder with a hiss. A wave of fear ran through Dean, but he tried to stay calm and rational. There was no fever as of yet, so maybe it wasn't a bite.

"Is it a bite, or a scratch?"

"A scratch."

"Are you sure," Dean demanded.

"Its a scratch," Shawn comfirmed, with a slightly exasperated tone.

"Good, come on, we need to get out of here," Dean declared, grabbing Shawn's uninjured arm as he tried to force him to come along. Shawn wasn't having any of it though, as he dug his heals in. He wasn't leaving with a murderer.

"You killed those people, I'm not going anywhere with you."

There wasn't much time to argue, as Dean heard the sirens in the distance get closer. Dean would be able to explain the death of one culprit with the police badge that was in his jacket pocket. He couldn't explain the deaths of nine innocent people, four of which had obviously been executed. He needed to get Shawn out of here so that he could explain what had happened at the hotel. He used the only means that he could think of, and fell back on intimidation.

"Your coming with me," Dean said, getting into Shawn's face, "wether you want to or not. I don't want to hurt you, Shawn."

Shawn went with him, afraid for his life. Mia walked to his left and a little behind, making him feel like a prisoner. Her face was closed and watchful, he knew that he would get no compassion from her. She looked like she intended to back up her partner all the way.

Back at the Blue Roof Inn, the two of them snuck their captive guest inside through a side door, and an empty hallway. Once in the room Dean and Mia seemed to relax a little. Shawn went to sit on the bed farthest from the door and farthest from the people he thought he had known. He kept his head down, waiting on what Dean planned to do with him.

When Dean looked in Shawn's direction his facial expression grew sad, looking at his boyfriend's posture, and reading the fearful resignation there. He sat on the bed opposite, and took in a deep breath, as he tried to think of the right words to say.

"Shawn, look at me," he said softly.

When the other brunette looked at him there was moisture in his eyes. There was slightly held back fear.

"I know that this night has been very scary for you, and what I'm about to tell you will only make it worse, but you need to believe me. I shot those... People to keep others safe."

He couldn't look Shawn in the eye anymore, not when he had confessed to murdering people. Shawn was understandably upset when he repeated his words from back in the street, "You killed those people in cold blooded murder, and you expect me to believe that you are a hero?"

Dean fell to his knees, and begged for understanding, and an open mind. Mia wasn't sure she could watch Dean beg forgiveness from his boyfriend so she left the room, and went outside for some fresh air. She hadn't smoked in years, not since she was twenty-one, but now she craved one so bad. She didn't deal with werewolf hunts so well, she didn't think anyone liked them, but they were necessary.

Back in the room, Dean was doing his best to explain himself to Shawn.

"Come on Shawn, you know me!"

"I thought I did! That person you were back there, the person you are right now, that scares me! What if I had been bitten? What then? Would you have killed me too?"

Shawn had him on that one. If he had been bitten, what would he have done? He couldn't imagine having to pull his gun on Shawn. It would have been his job, his duty to the human race, but did he have his brother's courage? Would he have been able to do it?

Instead of answering the question Dean crawled untill he could place his head in Shawn's midsection.

"I can prove that I'm not insane. My brother is in the business of hunting things too. "

"Do I have a choice? Your going to force me to go along with your convaluted schemes, aren't you? I'm your prisoner, right?

Dean got up off the floor and walked over to grab a drink. Once his back was turned he told Shawn that he was free to go at any time. He swallowed the little bit of liquor he had poured in the plastic cup. when he turned back around he took off his jacket and leaned on the counter, trying to play it cool.

"Your not a prisoner here, Shawn. You can believe me or not, that's your choice. I was just hoping for a chance to explain everything. I like you and I want you to stick around... I thought I had more time to tell you about all this stuff."

"You lied to me about that scar on your arm, didn't you?"

Dean had been rubbing his shoulder while he talked. He stopped, and lifted the sleeve of his shirt. He tried not to show hope. Asking questions was a good sign, maybe Shawn was willing to believe.

"When I told you that Cas saved me, you thought it was cute that he was my knight and shining armor, remember that?"

Shawn nodded, remembering their first date. Dean had been all nervous about going to bed with Shawn because he had been worried about insulting the memory of his dead boyfriend. He remembered teasing him about the cuteness of the romantic "knight in shining armor" image. He didn't remember asking what he meant by the comment of "he saved me."

"Yeah, well," Dean cleared his throat before continuing, "this is more unbelievable than werewolves and boogeymen, but Cas was an Angel of the Lord. He saved me from hell, Shawn. Literally, I had died, and gone to hell because I made a deal with a demon to save my brother's life. Cas fought his way into hell, and yanked me back out again."

Dean gestured towards the handprint on his shoulder, and said, "Apparently that kind of trip leaves a mark."

"You are unbelievable," Shawn declared, as he stood from the bed, "I'm dating a crazy man! Your so deluded that you think your ex-boyfriend was an angel? Dean, if he was an angel, how did he die?"

"Angels can die," Dean said in a low voice.

When Dean looked at Shawn with those sad eyes, he almost gave in. His arm stretched out a little as if he were going to walk over to Dean to offer him comfort, but then he shoved that hand in his pocket, and walked towards the door. He was getting off this crazy train! Dean and Mia were killers, and insane! How could they believe all this crap?

Shawn kind of half expected Dean to shoot him in the back as he left the room, but when he closed the door behind him and nothing happened, his shoulders relaxed in relief. When he spotted Mia through the glass door exit he was just about holding his breathe in fear. Maybe she was suppose to be the assassin who did him in. When he approached the end of the hall, she flicked a cigarette outside, and pulled the door open. She stood to the side, and held it open when she noticed Shawn standing there. When he passed her, she decided to speak up. She couldn't just let Shawn leave like he was, believing that Dean and her were crazy lunatics. She had thought that they had become friends, and she had to at least try. For Dean.

"Shawn."

When Shawn turned around he avoided eye contact, and she noted that he was tense with fear.

"If you have any doubts- If you have one inkling of a thought that the shit he told you is real, you should give him the benefit of the doubt. Its not easy on us with what we do. We travel all over the place and we never really return to the same place twice, in case the law catches on. And everyone thinks we're crazy. Unless you have seen the shit we've seen, unless you've witnessed with your own two eyes that monsters exist... They always think we're crazy. Here-"

Mia reached into her jacket and pulled out a card. She handed it over to Shawn. It had "Amelia Summers, FBI" written across the top.

"What is this," Shawn asked.

She smirks at him, and answers, "We have to get access to bodies, evidence, and police records. Monsters kill people, and they each have a different MO, so if we know what to look for, we can identify it and vanquish it. So, we have fake identities. Anyway, I wasn't handing that to you to show you that I'm a fake agent on the weekends. I want you to call the number. Sam will pick up the call. Just tell him that your Shawn and that your calling to talk about Dean. He'll know who you are because Dean had told him about you last week. We don't expect you to believe us without evidence, but maybe Sam will be able to give you a better insight as to who Dean is. Do you have a place where you receive mail, or a P.O box?"

"Yeah, I have a P.O. box. Why?"

"I have some information that I want to give to you, evidence that you can check out yourself. I'll even include a list of a few witnesses that know me. I don't have a whole lot on Dean since we've only been partners since Cleveland, but he has a big reputation."

"Big reputation with who?"

"Hunters. He's also had dealings with angels."

"Like Cas?"

"Yes, like Castiel."

Shawn did give Mia his P.O box, and put the FBI card in his wallet. He wasn't willing to believe just yet, but he had to hand it to Mia, the girl was good. She almost made all this nonsense look sane. It wouldn't hurt to see what Mia had as evidence. He decided not to call the police and turn the two in. It was a hard decision, and as he turned on the lights in his room at the Sweet South Bed and Breakfast he knew that he wanted to believe in monsters because he wanted to believe in Dean.


	8. A Talk With Sam

Sam came out of the kitchen with a nice turkey sandwich when his phone rang. It was one of the wall phones labeled FBI. He answered on the second ring, "FBI, this is agent Westin."

"Its Shawn, I called to talk about Dean."

"Oh... Can you call me on my cell, I like to keep this line open."

When Shawn called him back on his cell phone, he told him that the shit had hit the fan and Dean had been forced to tell him the truth about hunting. He admitted that he didn't really believe any of the stuff that Dean had told him, but Mia had given him some stuff to look over.

Some of the stuff was news articals. There were names and addresses of witnesses who knew about Mia and the names of the monsters that had attacked these people (most had the word ghost written alongside). There were photocopies of old books that had descriptions of monsters, and anti-demon charms. He had recognized a drawing of Dean's tatoo amongst those papers. He also had a sealed envelope that had stayed sealed, because it had the word autopsy stamped across the top.

Sam was mentally thanking Mia for having his brother's back. Dean was terrible at explaining these things. It hadn't gone so well with his first serious relationship because he had told her without evidence. Of course she had thought he was making up stories. Dean had already called a few days ago to tell him that Sam wouldn't have the chance to meet his boyfriend anymore, and that the guy had witnessed him killing the werewolf infected.

"I haven't really looked into any of the information that was given to me. I haven't really had a lot of time and I'm not sure..."

"Your not sure if you want to be proven wrong about what's real and what's not. Hey man, I get it, nobody wants to believe in all this. Heck, most hunters wish that they were still ignorant. Its a lot! It's a lot to take in."

"I heard that you went to Standford to study law."

"Yeah, once upon a time," Sam agreed. He wondered if that was why Mia had given Shawn his number. Maybe crazy would sound a little more sane coming from a man who had gone to school to study such a boring subject like law. Lawyers seemed to be perfectly sane people.

"What got you and Dean into this business of killing things?"

Sam decided to go through the simple version of events, not sure if Dean had told him about angels. He also didn't want to scare Shawn off by talking about the apocallypse, and wars between heaven and hell, which was a whole other box of unbelievable. It was bad enough to know about purgatory creatures.

"A demon killed my mother when I was just a baby. He had burned her on the ceiling of my nursery room. Dad became obsessed with revenge after that."

"So you were raised to believe in this stuff."

"There's no need to believe when your given proof that monsters exist on a regular basis."

"So why did you go to Standford?"

"Well, as I got older, my father and I started knocking heads. I guess that in some ways, we were just alike. One day we got in a really bad arguement, and Dad said that if I walked out the door I couldn't come back. I left, and I thought I could have a normal life."

"What brought you back?"

"My girlfriend was killed by the same thing that had killed my mother."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah well, it was a long time ago, but thank you for your condolences."

"Did you ever get over the loss?"

"Yeah, I've come to terms with it. Then again, I'm not happily married, or dating, so I guess I'm not completly over it. I kind of gave up on the whole happily ever after. I thought Dean had too. I guess he has more guts than me."

"How did Castiel die?"

"How much did Dean tell you?"

Shawn's alarm bells rang a little. You don't answer a question with a question unless you have something to hide.

"Well he told me that Cas was an angel, and that he had saved him from hell. I'm having a harder time believing that above all else."

"Oh, yeah, well Dean had a hard time believing in angels too," Sam informed him, finding it kind of funny that the angels seemed to always be the ones that made their story seem a little far fetched.

"So how did he think he was saved?"

"Demons maybe. We had been working with killing evil things so long that it had never occurred to him that maybe good existed out there. Of course he didn't really remember any of the trip back up. Anyway, you asked me how Cas died, well that's kind of a long story. I'd rather tell you after you've looked into the stuff Mia sent you. I would rather that you called me back when your more willing to believe me, because that story is pretty frickin remarkable. Let's just say for now that Cas' death was his own damn fault. He took some chances that we didn't approve of, and he had paid the ultimate price for his mistake. Before he died he had betrayed our trust. He had betrayed Dean's trust. Dean had a hard time getting over that."

"I'm not exactly sure that he's over it still. He was talking in his sleep one night when I had slept over and he said, 'how can you do this to me Cas'."

"Whenever Dean has unresolved issues they come out in his nightmares. I'm sorry. For everything. If it makes you feel any better, Dean has only had nice things to say about you, which is kind of amazing, because Dean never talks to me about his love life. I think you'd be good for him, Shawn. If you want to stick around, that is."

"Well, I have to go, but thank you for taking the time out to talk with me."

"No problem, Shawn. I'll maybe talk to you later."

After Shawn hung up he looked at the papers spread out across his coffee table with a sigh, and started reading. Some how, Sam had made this stuff seem a little less rediculous.


	9. California

Dean was looking out to the ocean, and throwing rocks out into the grey waves, thinking of Shawn. They had just finished a job involving a couple of Sealie. He didn't like the damn things! Leprechauns, were very magically gifted, but Dean had at least been able to distract him with grains of salt. Sealie apparently had no impulses to count the way Leprechauns did. He had almost drowned out in that stormy sea when one of the damn things had knocked him overboard. Dean officially hated boats now. Lucky he had got iron harpoons made, special order from Sam. While he was unable to kill the damn thing, he had at least distracted it long enough to reach the surface for a rescue.

They had been working with a friend of Sam's who was an expert on fae folklore. The dude didn't seem half as crazy as that lady back in Elwood, Indiana, which was a definite plus. He was a tour boat captain, and was the first to know that the recent drownings hadn't been accidental. He had reported the faery to Sam, and Sam had given the job to Dean. When they had gotten out to where the real seals were hanging out, Captain Mike helped them find the skin of the female sealie. They had found the skin in a sea cave out on the rockiest part of a secluded beach not too far from the main seal group. Once they had the skin of a sealie, according to Mike, she would have to come running. They had sat there for hours, waiting, and being barked at by a pissed off husband in the waves. Finally when the female came, she carried a half naked four year old boy with her who had a pudgy wiskered face, and deep black eyes that were over large and kind of creapy.

With Dean holding two members of his family hostage, the male sealie had no other choice but to come on shore. Watching the thing shed it's skin was an interesting experience. Once he was human, he stayed on the ground because he had two holes in his legs where the iron harpoon had shot through. The female hadn't really said much since she had arrived. She looked at the three of them then and said, "You have us where you want us, hunters. Are you going to kill us now?"

Dean could see her sharp teeth when she spoke, and he wondered if she had eaten her kills. Mike had answered her, saying, "You drowned those people because they could have been a threat to you and yours, so no, we'll let you live."

Dean had added his two cents saying, "We're not monsters. I won't kill an innocent child no matter what species, but you will have to return to where you came from."

That hadn't made any of them happy. Both parents hissed at Dean, and the little one cuddled close to his mother, but there was really nothing that they could do because Dean had the mother's skin. Dean was the master of her, and they couldn't attack any of them while he still had possession of it. Mike had turned to Mia then, and she began to read the inscription out of the book they had brought along. Dean had thrown the fur he had in his hand at the woman as the last sentence was read, and they had gone in a bright flash of light.

"Are you okay, Dean?"

Mia had walked up behind him as he leaned on the railing of a little private dock. He had heard her footsteps so he wasn't surprised. His first thought was to be angry because he was always tired of her and Sam's constant need to check on how he was feeling. Thanks Dr. Phil, and nurse Ratchet, but I'll pass on the talk, thanks.

"Will you leave me alone?"

Mia let the silence fall, as she leaned on the railing beside Dean. Sam had told them that Shawn had called, but that had been weeks ago. Mia saw how her partner was these days. He had become quiet and sullen without Shawn. Sam had called her not too long ago, checking on his brother. He hadn't said as much to Mia, but she knew that he was trusting her to do whatever she could with Dean. She didn't want to let Sam down, but she also knew that from what Sam had told her before she had accepted this partnership was that Dean was the type to drink away his problems. She gave a sigh of resignation, knowing that what sometimes worked best in these situations was to give a little bit of herself. Share time was not easy for her either.

"You know, this life is tough on all of us."

Dean remained silent, so she continued, "I once had a daughter."

She had finally gotten Dean's full attention as he swung his gaze over and stared at her.

"What? You never told me that."

"Its not something I speak of to most people."

"What happened to her?"

"She's not dead, but she's not mine anymore. I gave her up for adoption when she was a baby. Her name is Michelle now. I call her Emily."

"Why?"

Dean had a hard time understanding. He couldn't imagine giving up a child like that. Even with Adam, his father had tried to be in his life. Just thinking about the kid made him shrink in guilt. As far as he knew, Adam was still in the cage with Micheal and Lucifer. Ellen had also raised Jo, even though it couldn't have been easy for her either. Another pang of guilt came with the thought of Jo, who had been so young when she had passed.

"When I was sixteen a ghost had killed almost all my friends. We had played hide and seek in the cemetary on Halloween, that year. Afterward my friends started to hallucinate, or so I had thought. One by one they would swear that they saw something watching them, and then they'd blink and she would be gone. Eventually the ghost killed us all except Tommy and me. We were saved by a hunter named Rufus. He had burned and salted the remains of our ghost, and it never bothered us again.

"Almost a year later I was emancipated, when my mom married a drunk asshole named Fred. She let me go, didn't even fight it. I was a waitress for many years after that. Then I meet Frank when I was twenty. He was nearly nine years older, and I thought he cared for me. After he had already skipped town, I found out that I was pregnant.

"Emily was six pounds, three ounces, when she was born. She was beautiful and perfect. I gave her away to a nice couple who could better take care of her and they legally named my baby Michelle. Soon after, I left. I couldn't be in that town anymore, waitressing for four dollars an hour plus tips, and coming back to the same crummy apartment, sitting on the same crummy couch, knowing that my daughter was somewhere close by doing fine without me. That's when I went to find a hunter who could train me.

"Mike was the only one I could find to take me in. He was a sexist pig, who treated me like crap and risked our lives on a regular basis, being stupid. One time his gamble didn't pay off, and he was dead. I had meet your brother a year before, and knew that he could help me in finding someone to hunt with. I never liked the idea of hunting alone. Then we meet, and the rest, well..."

"How old are you, Mia," Dean asked, realizing that he had never thought to ask.

"I'll be thirty next month."

They sat there in silence for a long time, as Dean processed things. Mia brought a picture out of her wallet and just stared at it. The photo was of a four year old girl, the last photo Emily's foster parents had given her.

"Love is never easy for us, but I have faith in Shawn. He'll come back Dean, I just think he needs a little more time."

Dean stayed silent and angry, so Mia walked away to spend time up at the cabin they had rented up on the hill, facing the cliffside. Maybe they needed a few days off. At least up here in the California countryside, Dean would have a hard time meeting any girls to hit on. She had seen the way he had scanned the crowd, trolling for some ass to keep him warm when they were in Freedmont. She didn't like it, because she knew that if Dean would just wait a little while longer his boyfriend would come through for him.

0-0-0-0

She was the trampy barbie doll type, in her mid thirties, and Dean went for her. It didn't take her long to be convinced to go home with Dean. Apparently she had been trolling for tail too, and Dean was definitly easy on the eyes. Mia's lips went thin in heavy dissapproval.

"Barbie" insisted that they go to his place, and he was thinking how lucky he was that the little motel they had checked into had only single beds available, as he gave her directions to his place. Dean guessed that Ms. Laura had a husband waiting at home, but it didn't bother his conscience, since she would have gone home with somebody else, if he hadn't grabbed her up first. She was a consenting adult, and she was doing the cheating, not him. He didn't have a boyfriend anymore.

Dean made out with Laura for a little bit before digging his key out of his pocket. He hadn't noticed the rental car that had slowly drove by. The driver had noticed the two people under the porch light, and moved on.

0-0-0-0

The next morning, Dean was woken by a knock on his door. he looked at the clock, and saw that it was nine in the morning. Mia must have had a late night with her book, since she didn't seem interested in picking up dates anymore. Dean got up to answer the door, and for some reason forgot to check the peep hole. Instead of Mia being on the other side, as he had assumed, there stood Shawn.

Dean just stood there in his boxer briefs and nothing else. He stared at Shawn, and Shawn stared at him. Eventually Shawn asked, "Well, are you going to let me in?"

Dean moved aside as he pulled the door open a little wider, and then closed the door as soon as Shawn was inside. He mussed up his own hair, trying to get his brain to work. He didn't know what to say, or where to begin.

"What's the bandage for?"

Dean took the bandage off his left shoulder, and crumpled it in his hand. He just sometimes got tired of people commenting on his scar, so he had covered it up. He left the question unanswered as he threw the bandage away.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were through with me."

"I tried to be. I went back home, and moped around my apartment in Miami. I tried to act cheerful around my friends and family. Then one day my mom smacked me upside the head, and called me a fool. I hadn't realized that I was being so obvious. I missed you."

"What about the other thing?"

"Oh I believe you. I've known that you were telling me the truth for a little while now. I just didn't know how to handle it. Mia had mailed me some stuff, I don't know if she told you."

"No she didn't. What sort of stuff did she send you?"

"Mostly newspaper articles about some of her past cases, witness lists, information about some of the stuff you hunt, things like that. On the bottom of the witness list there was a name of an old hunter who lived in Mississippi. I went by for a visit and he told me that it could be dangerous being the loved one of a hunter. Most hunters won't even risk having a family, and then some who do lie to their spouses for years. So, I guess I understand why you didn't tell me, and all that, but I wasn't sure if I could put myself in danger like that. My parents have already lost one child, so I'm the only one they have left.

"I understand if you've already decided to move on. It's been almost two months, and I haven't called you in all that time, so your off the hook, if you want to be. But I was just hoping that maybe you could at least forgive me for leaving you hanging. Do you for-?"

Dean didn't say a word, he just hooked his arm behind Shawn's back and kissed him. When Shawn's lips were finally released, he was just as pleasantly surprised as he had been standing outside that hotel in Cleveland. He was so turned on right now, being held by this big hunk of a man who was wearing nothing but boxer briefs.

"So I guess this is a yes."

"Shut up," Dean said.

When Shawn looked up into those big brown eyes, it made him feel all warm and fuzzy. Dean wanted him, that's what he saw in those eyes. Eventually the world had to come crashing in on their little happy reunion, and that interruption came in the form of a knock.

Shawn answered the door this time. It was Mia of course. She was looking at the ground and covering a yawn. She spotted the shoes, and her brow came together, in confusion. As far as she knew, Dean always wore boots, not sneakers. She finally glanced up, and gave a little squeak of excitment as she clung to Shawn's neck. When she pulled back, she put her hands on both sides of his face, and declared, "I knew it! I knew you'd come back! Man, I am so glad to see you, boy!"

She smacked a kiss onto his forehead, and still grinning from ear to ear she said, "Dean has been moping for weeks!"

"Have not," Dean denied, "now come in, and close the door. Your embarrassing, woman."

Dean told Shawn that they were going to go to South Dakota to have dinner with his brother Sam. Afterwards, if they could find a ghost case, Shawn was going to come with, so that he would have first hand experience. Shawn shuddered at the thought of his first hunt, but it didn't seem like Dean was going to give him a chance to back out. He wasn't going to even try, even though ghosts had always given him the heebie jeebies. At least they had a way of defending themselves, and a way to destroy the ghosts.

"Your going to like my brother's cooking, I think. He's a health food nut, kind of like you," Dean remarked, as they were all walking out to the car.

"Hey, I don't always eat veggie burgers, I just had a craving that one time."

"Yeah, whatever," Dean said, already back to being cheerful, "I just hope that he resists the urge to cook muscles again, yuck!"

After Dean plopped his and Mia's luggage into the trunk, he motioned for Shawn to stand beside him. Shawn noticed that most of the space was dedicated to a large box that Dean now opened to reveal the weapons inside. He pointed out small shotguns with salt rounds beside it, machettes for vampires, pistols, silver bullets, rosary beeds for blessing holy water, hex bags, and a bag of dirt that he said was hoodoo dust.

Mia came over then, and patted Shawn on the back, "A little over-whelming, isn't it?"

"Yeah, a little," he admitted.

"Don't worry, ghosts are a piece of cake for us veterans. We have your back. You'll do just fine on your first hunt."

Shawn didn't want to think of the fact that he was going to be expected to handle a shotgun, or that he was going to be hunting a ghost.

"What's that," Shawn asked, pointing at a blunt silver weapon in the corner of the box.

"That's an angel sword. Its practically a decorative piece, now. The angels haven't really been seen south of heaven since the laviathin."

Shawn hadn't missed that heavy tone when Dean mentioned the laviathin, whatever they were. He decided to drop the subject there. They discussed cars after that, as Dean closed the weapons box, and then the trunk. Dean agreed to follow him to the car rental place so that he could return his vehicle, and then he would hop into the back seat of the Impala from there. He was kind of excited about meeting Dean's brother. Sam's place was more than a day's drive, since they would be driving through the mess of highways in the Rocky Mountains. Shawn looked forward to a night in a hotel room with Dean. He needed Dean to make love to him. He needed to be held.


	10. Well That's a First

_Author's note: I was debating on wether I should really bother on putting a sex scene in this chapter, but then I was in a mood, so I did. Mmmm... Just couldn't resist the idea of Dean calling Shawn his master. I know that its kinda gross but there's a rim job in this one. Don't worry too much, I'll make it as less graphic as possible. *shudder* *smirk* Warning: drug use in this chapter. p.s.-I've used another word for "sugar bowl" this time._

Mia, Shawn, and Dean were relaxing at Sam's place, a few days later. Dean had taken Shawn out shooting the first day they had woken up in the spare room of Sam's house. By the end of the excercise he had become pretty proficient with a handgun, but he was still spooked by the recoil of the shotguns. Mia had taken him out the next day to get him use to being hit. That's exactly what she had told him too when she handed him a padded boxing helmet.

"It can take years of discipline and hard work to become an expert in hand to hand combat. So, that's not why I brought you out here. I've brought you out here so you can experience what its like to get hit. A guy can know all the martial arts moves in existance, but he can still get his ass beat or get himself killed, if he can't think past the shock of getting punched. We're going against ghosts for your first case, and while they're not one of the deadliest creatures in existance, they can sneak up on you and throw you across a room."

At that statement, Shawn shuddered, and Mia smirked before she continued, "Dean might get mad at me because you might get bruised in this part of your training, but I don't care. I'd rather have you alive, Shawn. I know you won't like me either by the time we're through today, but I'm okay with that. Now, remember to throw your right punch with all your body weight behind it, if you can. Don't hold back in fear of hurting me, cuz you won't. You probly won't even get many oppurtunities to hit me."

After Mia had said, "hands up," the bout started. She started circling him, causing him to turn with her so as to always have his opponent in view. Mia was right about him not having many opputunities to get her. As much as he tried he couldn't catch her without her defenses up. He had no experience with boxing, and the first shot she took had him swearing. She was right about it being a shock to get hit like that. Even though he had protection gear on, he could feel it. By the end of the bout he was sweating, panting, and bruised a little along the ribs. He had noticed that she took it easy at first, but she just got tougher as time went on.

"This sucks," Shawn complained as he spit out his mouth guard into his glove.

"Yeah, well, the things that go bump in the night don't go easy on hunters. Its a fight to the death. Its either them or us. I don't dissagree with Dean on bringing you on a ghost chase, but you need to understand that we need you to be on your toes. We're trying to push as much training on you in the next few days or whatever, so that your not a burden. So you either suck it up or sit this out Shawn."

Shawn nodded his understanding then, and they went in to get Dean. They ran through the woods, quickly jumping over tree roots, and finding their way through or around dense plant life. Mia explained to Shawn that the most important thing, as it was with a lot of physical activities is to have high endurance, and apparently a high pain threshhold.

Today they were sitting on the couch after their morning excercise, talking about the two apocalypses the Winchesters had just barely prevented. It was all over-whelming, and unbelievable, and Shawn sat captivated by every word. True to his word, Sam discussed what happened with Cas. Sam watched Dean's reaction as he told Shawn the ugly details of Castiel's betrayal. Dean stayed quiet through the whole thing, but he allowed his brother to explain things.

After that Sam busied himself with something else, sensing that maybe the boys would want a moment to themselves, and Mia left the room too. Dean couldn't look at Shawn. He felt awkward, after they had discussed his ex with his current boyfriend. None of their stories had been about anything personal that had passed between them, but he still found himself unable to look up from his hands that were sitting in his lap. Shawn moved to sit right next to Dean, but he wasn't sure if he should touch him, and he wasn't sure what to say at first.

"The first night we had sex, you had said something in your sleep," Shawn confessed, as Dean looked up at him, startled.

Shawn continued, "I know that you couldn't help it, so I hadn't mentioned it. I can't imagine what kind of bond was formed between you and Castiel, because I've never been a soldier. I do know that his loss has affected you greatly. And I don't blame you for missing him. When I went off to New York afterwards, I lied to you about the busted cell phone. I just didn't know if I wanted to fall for someone so damaged. But I do want you Dean, and even though you may think of Cas sometimes, I hope you know that its okay, because I want to be here for the long run."

Dean was a little taken aback by these revelations. When he found his voice again he smirked and said, "How did I get so lucky in finding you?"

Mia tip toed downstairs a little after that and found Shawn and Dean making out on the couch. She smiled at this little display of affection and grabbed her phone off one of the chairs. Dean had noticed her presence, even though she had been super quiet in her approach.

"Go away Mia," Dean groused in his lust roughened voice before going back to kissing Shawn.

"Sorry, just forgot my phone," she said, before tip toeing back upstairs.

Later on in the day, Sam told Dean about a case that was probably ghost related. Apparently a family was being killed off in Wyoming, one by one. Only ghosts are usually vengful like that. So, in the morning, they sit down to one more breakfast with Sam, and then they were off on the road again. In Shawn's opinion he felt like he was going off to his doom.

0-0-0-0

The trio arrived in Oakwood Wyoming after a long drive, and Dean couldn't wait untill he could get Shawn in bed. He had kept his hands to himself all weekend, feeling uncomfortable making love to his boyfriend knowing that his brother might be able to hear the going-ons from down the hall. Sam had found out about Cas and his relationship, but it had all been after the fact. He knew that his brother approved of Shawn too, but he wasn't so sure that Sam would have apreciated hearing first hand of what they did in their alone time.

He grabbed his and Shawn's luggage, as he sent his lover to get room keys. He waved Mia over to tell her that he was planning on doing the dirty with his boyfriend before they started in on the case. She just nodded and told him to text her when they were done. She didn't understand why they hadn't made whoopy while they were at Sam's but she guessed that Sam seeing him with a boyfriend was uncharted territory. Maybe he just felt a little awkward.

Dean went into the shower first thing, enjoying the warmth of the steamy water. After a little while he started to stand at attention as thoughts of Shawn kept popping up in his mind.

"Babe," he called so that he could be heard over the shower spray, "come in and join me."

"Okay."

Once Shawn stepped pass the curtain, Dean kneeled before him and started sucking on his soft member untill it became hard. Even then he didn't stop, licking and sucking untill he could hear a moan echo off the tiles. His favorite thing about Shawn was how he let out almost any sound that wanted to escape his lips while they made love. He wasn't ashamed of the pleasure he took from Dean. When Dean's teeth brushed by the skin of his cock, Shawn gasped.

When Shawn felt Dean's fingers poised at his entrance, he whimpered his consent. Dean's fingers went inside him and started pumping into him with a nice steady rythm, as he continued to work on his front. He could tell that Dean was going to stay down there untill he received permission to rise from his knees. Shawn found that he liked this new submissive side of him. Soon Shawn started to feel the pressure of his orgasm threaten, but he didn't want to come without feeling Dean inside him.

"Dean, please," he begged.

Dean stopped what he was doing, and looked up at Shawn.

"'Please', what," he asked.

"I need you!"

"Need me to do what, exactly?" Dean asked wanting to hear Shawn say it.

"I need you to fuck me," he declared, and seeing as Dean was making no move towards getting off his knees, he continued, "I need to feel your cock being rammed up my ass over and over again. I need you to ride me into oblivion. _Please Dean_, I need you inside me."

Dean leaned forward and licked some of the water spray off his lover's stomache, and then said with a smirk, "Of course master, but first things first."

With that, Dean ducked his head under Shawn, and opened up his cheeks so that he could assault him with the pleasure of his tongue in a place he never thought he'd go. He had once seen a girl do this to a guy in a porno before. He wasn't sure if he would enjoy it but he was just about ready to try anything once, with the exception of being fucked himself. Dean was pleasantly surprised when Shawn started moaning as he continued with his ministrations.

When he felt like he should stop teasing Shawn and get right down to his main duties, he ducked back under his lover's trembling knees, and stood up. Shawns lips were all red from him biting and sucking on them. Dean had begun to wonder why his moans had started sounding muffled while he was downstairs. He almost wanted to laugh at Shawn's flustered state, but he held back. Instead he picked up Shawn's leg so that he could slip inside, and started fucking him hard against the wall of the bathroom.

Shawn's cries were both pleasure and pain mixed. There were no objections to the rough treatment, so he continued, shoving himself deep into his partner's abdomin. "Fuck, yes," became the repeated statement of the moment, as he found the right spot. Then Shawn said no more words as he screamed his way across the finish line. Dean let out a small grunt as he released himself in the moment after.

When he let his boyfriend down, Shawn clung to him, still too weak kneed to stand properly on his own, he guessed. They both stepped into the water stream and the evidence of their activities was swept down the drain. They quickly washed, and got dressed after that.

Mia's cellphone blinged, and she looked at the text, "I hope you weren't actually in your room, but you should change into your monkey suit, so we can get this hunt started."

"He was that loud, huh?"

0-0-0-0

Looking at the obituary they found out where the Colter family were going to have the wake. At the aunt's house, Mia and Dean were dressed as FBI agents, trying to ask discreet questions of the family. They found out that Robbie Colter was afraid of his own shadow before he passed, but other than that the family wasn't very forthcoming with useful information. The victim had been strung out in a tree, and found by a neighbor the next morning. There was no doubt of fowl play because there were signs of struggle. Robbie had been dragged outside, and gagged so that he couldn't call out for help. They had stopped by the police department before heading to the wake.

The first victim was Robbie's sister, Karen. She was an antiqueties dealer. The night after they bought an eighteen twenties rifle, Karen had been closing up the shop when she was shot in the back with the antique firearm. As they were leaving the house, Dean noticed that there was a jumpy teenage boy sitting in the middle of the couch, surrounded by protective relatives. An older man sitting on the right side of the sofa glared at Dean as if to say, "leave, your not welcome here."

Once outside, Dean told Mia what he had seen. They both agreed that they would need to talk to the boy, so they decided to watch him so that they could speak to him while he was on his own. The oppurtunity came around eight-o-clock when the kid went out to a corner grocery store. Unfortunatly Mia had already walked down the block to get them some food from the burger joint down the street. Dean snuck up on the kid by himself, and when the boy felt his presence, he swung some iron. Dean caught the weapon just above the kid's grip just before it could make a connection with his neck.

"What are you doing with a fireplace poker," Dean asked, when he noticed the weapon of choice.

"Dude, I'm so sorry. I thought you were here to kill me. I've been being followed, man- uh, officer- I mean, agent, sir."

The boy looked Dean up and down, with his dark blue eyes, noticing that the "FBI agent" wasn't wearing a suit anymore. Easily interpreting the look Dean explained that he was technically off the clock, so he had changed out of his work clothes.

"I'm going to repeat my question," Dean said, "and your going to answer me honestly. Why are you carrying around a poker?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me, anyway."

"A ghost killed Robbie and Karen. And now its after me. My friend Chris at school showed me this video online. It was suppose to be some sort of joke, but the video said that iron and salt was the only way to protect against ghosts. I don't want that damn ghost killing me, man!"

"Let me guess, that video was brought to you in part by some geeky guys who call themselves 'Ghostfacers,' right?"

"Yeah, you saw it too?"

"Video has been out for a while. I'm one of the guys they mention. Dean Winchester, at your service."

"Really" the kid asked, sounding all excited.

"Yeah, really. So, what's your name kid?"

"Andrew."

"Okay, Andrew, do your folks expect you back soon?"

"My aunt Krystal has custody of me. My folks skipped town together as soon as I was born, so.. but yeah, I'm only out to get some munchies from the store, so she'll be expecting me back."

"Does your family know about the ghost?"

"Yeah, I told them. They believe me. I've never really been a problem child. So, will you be able to help me?"

"Don't worry yourself too much, I'm here to help, but I need to know who your ghost buddy is. What does he look like? Do you recognize him?"

"Well the people on the rez kind of keep to themselves so no, I don't know him."

"The rez?"

"Indian reservation, a couple exits east off the highway. The ghost is a native. Though, I don't think its a recent ghost, because he's wearing traditional warrior wear."

"Old style Indian, you sure?"

"Yeah, dude. Schools around here are big on the expansion west shit."

Dean pulled out his cell phone and dialed Shawn's number. He was waiting at the hotel, because they didn't normally need three hunters on a simple stake-out.

Shawn answered on the first ring and asked "Need something?"

"Yeah, need you to look up the Colter family history. We have an old school native american ghost. I'll call you back as soon as Mia and I go talk to the family again."

Shawn spoke up before Dean could end the call, "Well, the family name sounds familiar. I had a friend in college who was majoring in american history, so I know that John Colter was a frontiersman, and also he served in the army at one point. Back during the expansion west, the army had received orders to kill any native american who didn't stay on their reservations. So, if the lineage is correct, there's your revenge killing. The police just called on Mia's other cell, and they gave me the information she wanted on the gun that killed Karen Colter."

"Good, do the research to be sure. I'll call you back in a few."

After hanging up with Shawn, Dean put his hand behind Andrew's back and pushed him in the direction of his car where Mia was waiting with their dinner. Dean ate his cheeseburger with this look of bliss on his face. It was the greasiest most delicious burger he had ever tasted.

"I see you went to Joe's," Andrew commented, "Can I have some of your fries?"

The kid had a starved look on his face, as if he'd cry if you said no to him. Dean offered him the bag of fries, and watched as the kid inhaled them.

"Sorry," Andrew said, noticing the looks he was getting for his terrible food manners, "You guys aren't actual agents, are you?"

"No," Dean admitted with a smirk, "we need the fake badges to hunt things."

"Good, then I can admitt to my fellow law breakers that I totally have the munchies from smoking."

Dean's eyebrow went up, "I thought you were a good kid. You just told me your family believed you about the ghost because you have never been a problem child."

"I am a good kid! Its just if I'm going to die, might as well smoke a little weed, right?"

Dean smiled at the kid, as he snatched his bag of fries back before he ate them all, and threw them in the front seat of the car, "I like you kid, but if you eat all my french fries, I'll lay you out on the ground. Now lets go in and see your guardians."

The old guy from the wake who had glared at Dean was the one to answer the door. Apparently he was Andrew's Uncle Elliot. The kid explained that Dean and Mia were here to help before he pushed past his uncle, and let the two in like they were his friends coming in to chill after school.

"How can they possibly help you, Andrew," his uncle asked, annoyed with him already.

"They're not FBI agents, Uncle El, they hunt monsters, ghosts and things. They can help."

Dean looked down at his feet as the older gentleman gave him a shocked look. He wanted to laugh at the way the kid was just blirting out information like it was nothing. At the same time he wanted to strangle him for exactly the same thing. If Andrew had given him the oppurtunity to explain he would've done a much better job of it. As it was, he could see the disbelief turn slowly into anger. Dean was completly aware of the fact that Uncle El wanted to kick them out of his house.

"So you mean to tell me that you two dress up in suits, and carry around fake FBI badges to, what, harrass families while their grieving?"

The acusation sent Dean into defensive angry mode, as he growled at the Uncle. "We save lives! We may not have the law on our side, and we may have to break a few rules to do it, but we're all you got between that ghost, and your nephew's iminant demise!"

'So much for playing it cool,' Mia thought, as she cut in to diffuse the situation. She placed her hand on the guy's upper arm, and when he looked at her, she put as much empathy in her eyes as she could muster. The slow smirk that spread across her face said, "Sorry for my partner, he's a bit of a bone head."

"The regular authorities are too logical to be of any use in these situations. If we went up to every doorstep and said, 'Hi, we're here to investigate a murdering ghost,' doors would be slammed in our faces because everyone would think we were crazy. I don't like being dishonest. I don't, but I will do whatever it takes to protect your nephew, and the rest of your family."

When Dean was on his own for a while, he almost got himself kicked out of a few houses. He wasn't as great at doing the people person thing like Sam, or Mia. He was plenty charming, but that was usually with women who were interested in him. Just as they were sitting down for a nice chat, Andrew's aunt came down in a wrap around nightgown cover. Dean noticed a remarkable difference in age. Well, maybe the husband went grey early.

"What's going on," the aunt asked, as she came into the front sitting room.

Introductions went around again, and the husband told her that they were fake agents, this time. She shot the usual look of mistrust in their direction, but once Mia told her that they were only trying to help, and Elliot told his wife that he was leaning towards trusting them, she stopped glaring. She joined her family on the couch as Dean and Mia sat in recliner chairs on opposite ends of the coffee table.

Dean pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, as soon as they got around to the question of why the ghost wanted to kill the Colter family. He had told the Buckley/Colter family his theories, but he thought that it was about time he asked Shawn about the fact checking. Shawn answered on the first ring.

"Hiya there," Shawn said.

"So, how's the research going?"

"Good. The Colter family are the descendants of John Colter the frontiersman. And the gun that killed Karen belonged to him. Any army dispatches or reports would be kept somewhere safe at a museum or something, so I have no idea if he was there to kill indians on army orders, but I'm willing to bet thats why an Indian ghost from the eighteen hundreds is after the family."

Dean looked at Mia as he informed the room that their theories were correct about motive. He then put Shawn on speaker phone and introduced their third partner to Andrew, and Mr. and Mrs. Buckley.

"So I have a question," Dean remarked, "why, after all these years, and a few generations later does this ghost decide to get revenge now?"

"Mrs. Buckley, has your family been living in Wyoming for a long time," Shawn asked.

"Yes, at least as long as my grandfather's time."

"Maybe the only way the ghost could get to the family was through the gun, and somehow John's rifle got lost, untill now," Mia suggested.

"Is that even possible? I mean, I thought ghosts were attached to places," Mrs. Colter-Buckley inquired.

"Most ghosts do haunt the same place where they died," Dean explained, "Others can attach themselves to an object. You can summon ghosts to do your bidding but that can be very dangerous because most ghosts don't like a leash around their neck. A free roaming ghost though is very rare. So the rifle explains Karen's death, but how did Robbie pick up the ghost? Why did the ghost attach itself to something that didn't belong to it, for that matter?"

Dean sat and thought about it for a minute before Mia spoke up again, "Maybe this particular Indian was killed with blunt force trama. Maybe John hit him with the end of the rifle, and his blood or hair got on the weapon. Who's the first family member to enter the antique store after Karen's death?"

"Robbie," Mrs. Buckley answered, "their mother just passed, and Robbie's dad, my half brother, suffers from Parkinsons. Karen has no children so Robbie got the shop from Karen's will."

"Who was the first family member to enter Robbie's house after his passing?"

"Me," Andrew answered looking a little pale, "I go over there all the time. He's been teaching me how to drive. Me and Robbie were close. When cops came over to tell Aunt Krystal I just had to see if it was true, so I ran the few blocks to Robbie's"

Tears came to the kid's eyes as he was remembering the scene at his cousin's house. Both Dean and Mia felt bad for the kid. Mrs. Buckley rubbed her nephew's back as she spoke to the hunters.

"Your going to fix this, right? My nephew does not deserve to die. Despite having a terrible mother, Andrew has straight A's, and a baseball scholarship. We're all good people. Robbie, and Karen didn't deserve this."

"Of course we'll take care of it. We'll have to salt and burn that rifle, but untill we're sure that its the only thing keeping the ghost here, we'll have to keep Andrew with us, for safe keeping," Dean said.

When Mrs. Buckley looked at Mia, she comfirmed what Dean had said. Shawn expressed his condolences with the Buckley's over the phone, before he ended the call. Andrew ran up the stairs to get some stuff, and then they were off, back to the hotel. Shawn came out to greet them when they arrived back.

Dean turned to Andrew after pleasantries were exchanged and said, "We can't get the rifle untill morning, but you'll be safe enough over here. I'll put out our precious supply of hoodoo dust along the doors and windows so the ghost won't come in. How often have you seen the ghost since your cousin's passing?"

"A few times, but he hasn't tried to attack me yet. I think he's taunting me the way he taunted Robbie. He seemed spooked for a few days after his sister's death. We all just assumed that he was just taking her passing hard."

"Okay, well, that means we may have one more day left. Now, you have two options as to the sleeping arrangments. We prefer that you share a room with Mia, but if you feel uncomfortable sleeping in a room with queen bitch you could always stay with Shawn and me."

Andrew smiled at the name calling, obviously this was a close knit group.

"Mia's is fine, if she'll have me," Andrew commented, trying to put his charms on the older woman. She was kinda cute. He especially noted that she had pretty big breasts for a woman who obviously worked out a lot. Mia looked at that smile on the kids face, and she ruffled his hair as if he was her twerpy kid brother.

"I'm not going to be sleeping in my finest lingerie so that jailbate can oggle me while I dream. Wipe that smirk off your face!"

Mia took a small burlap bag out of the trunk of the car, and walked towards her room, waving the kid to follow. Once the two were safely inside their room, and Dean could see Mia seal the window with dust, Shawn and Dean slipped in their room to watch a little bit of t.v. before bed.

"What did your sister die of," Dean asked his boyfriend when the t.v. was on commercial.

"Pnemonia, why?"

"Just seems fair, since you know how my family died."

"Oh."

"Not many people die of pnemonia these days. Didn't you say your folks live in Florida?"

"Yeah, but we had moved after Angela died. I was just a baby at the time."

A creeping feeling started crawling down Dean's spine as he asked where and when his sister had died. As he suspected it was the same monster that had almost got Sammy when Dean was ten.

"I'm sorry," Dean said.

"Like I said, I was real little so I don't really remember her," Shawn replied, kissing Dean on the cheek.

He saw the look on Dean's face, and when he asked what was wrong, Dean brushed off his concern, saying that it was nothing. After the movie was over they cuddled close and went to sleep. In the morning they were woken before sunrise by some insistant barking from outside. Shawn opened the door to see what all the noise was about, a dog that looked like it was closely related to a wolf, swept past him and went into their bathroom. The dog closed the door behind itself.

"Skin walker," Dean declared, as he jumped up from the bed and ran to the bathroom. When Dean opened the door it was to reveal a woman's bare butt that was quickly covered by a spare towel. The skin walker was tanned a light brown with long legs, a cute little butt, super skinny in the middle with full breasts that were tucked behind the towel. She turned around and looked at him with a half annoyed, half bemused look on her face. She had beautiful almond eyes with thick lashes. She had a small, straight, semi-circular nose, and a flat, wide face. She was completly beautiful in Dean's book. And he would have jumped her bones if he wasn't in a commited relationship already, skin walker or not.

Amusement won out on the woman's facial expression, as she turned around to look at the hunter. She wasn't ashamed of her near nakedness, as she got real close to him to purr in his ear, "I bet you want to just eat me all up."

He swallowed down the lump in his throat. He couldn't really deny it, as his desire was written all over his face. He gripped the door jam, as he tried to play it cool. His voice was only a little rougher than usual as he asked her, "What are you doing in my motel room?"

She backed off a little with a disgusted grimace on her face, as she smelt the other males scent that was all over this one. She turned around real quick, and took the one step away from him that was all that was the available space in the small bathroom. She knew that there were all sorts of people out there in the world today, and she was trying not to be judgmental, but in her pack, homosexual skin walkers were on the bottom of the social ladder.

"I've come here to help," she told the shower door.

"Why would you help us?"

"Because its my fault these murders are happening now." the girl said, turning around now that she finally had her face under control.

"I don't understand," Dean admitted, as he looked at the Indian woman's beautiful face, and saw the determination, to right a wrong.

"How about I discuss all this with you after you wake your partner and I borrow some clothes," she suggested.

"Oh, yeah.. right," Dean agreed, suddenly noticing that he was being totally rude.

Dean knew from experience that not all skin walkers were inherantly evil. He had been barring the door to prevent her escape as a protective reflex. He backed away from the door, but he had a hard time keeping his eyes off her. This time it was less because he was attracted to her, and more as a need to keep a potential threat in his line of sight. Her dog form was rather big, and he knew that the transformation was easily done.

Understanding his difficulties, the girl cast her eyes down, and drooped her shoulders so that she looked as non-threatening as possible. Dean reached underneath his pillow, and handed his boyfriend a pistol, along with a clip of silver bullets from the nightstand. He watched to make sure Shawn loaded the clip in correctly, before walking towards the door.

"Its just a cautionary measure, you understand," Dean told the girl, before leaving the two alone to get Mia.

The skin walker sat in a chair next to the tiny table in the room, with a relaxed posture, so that she seemed even less intimidating. Shawn sat down on their bed, across the room from her, resting his gun hand on his knee, pointed the weapon away from the girl in the chair. He hoped that he would be able to react in time if she ever decided to lunge at him, but he wasn't too worried. Dean probably wouldn't have left him alone with her if he was in any immediate danger. Besides, Dean had said himself that it was only a precautionary measure.

"What's your name," Shawn asked.

"Which one?"

"Uh... Both," he suggested.

"My indian name translates to Two Green Birds, and my common name is Ellia."

"Ellia's a pretty name."

"Thanks."

"My name is Shawn, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, I suppose."

There was a pause in conversation, and before things could get awkward again, Mia came in with a bag of clothes. Dean wasn't with her, and neither was Andrew. Shawn guessed that they wanted to keep Andrew in the room with all the hoodoo dust around every window sill and Dean was left to watch the kid.

Since Ellia was three inches taller than Mia, and bustier in the chest, they had a hard time finding clothes that would fit. They settled on a pair of jeans that Mia had to roll up the pantlegs to wear, a t-shirt with a howling wolf on it, that Mia purposely got two sizes bigger, and one of Mia's old bras from when her tits swelled during pregnancy. Ellia thought it was funny how the only shirt she fit in had a wolf on it. She liked Mia already even though she hadn't made any real attempt at friendly conversation past a, "Hi, heard you needed some clothes." She had at least smiled when she greeted her, and she could tell that with this hunter, at least, a smile came more naturally than a scowl. Not many hunters would treat her so nicely or so readily give up clothes for her to wear.

When Ellia came out of the bathroom, fully dressed, except for undies which weren't available, she was escorted to the room next door. She introduced herself readily enough, and plopped down in a chair so that she had the proper height for a visit with a strange pack. There was understandably a lot of tension in the air, as she began to explain herself.

"The ghost that wants to kill you is waiting outside in the parking lot. It will be difficult to see him when the sun comes up. I'm sorry to have woken you all at this early hour, but its kind of hard to get away from my village, without drawing unwanted attention to myself. Your ghost is my great-great-grandfather."

"Great, you can call him off then," Andrew interrupted, as if he blamed her for being related to him.

"I'm afraid that its not that simple. Ghosts don't simply forget their vendettas. Anyway, your great-great-grandfather, John Colter, killed my ancester, and all his family but one, my great grandmother. My great grandmother was raped by two of Colter's men, but when the third man tried to take her, she got free, and ran away. She was shot in her leg for her troubles, and she passed out on the prairie some miles away. A traveling fur trader brought her to the closest white man town, and found her a doctor to treat her wound. She raged with fever for days, but when she got better, she went back to where her father was killed, and saw that all the ghosts lay at rest, but one.

"She found where John Colter's family lived. He had been killed by her uncle, who was a great warrior. His affects were sent back to the family, because white men inherit items from deceased loved ones. The rifle was suppose to belong to John's son, when he came of an age to use it, but he was only three at the time of his father's passing. My great grandmother convinced the wife, in her broken english to hand over the weapon. She knew that her father's spirit would attach itself to the gun once he moved on from sorrow to vengence.

"That gun was passed down through the women in my family along with this story. I was given the gun on my fifteenth birthday, to guard. The gun was stolen from my house when I wasn't home. I didn't really see any point in hiding it, so it was in plain sight. No tribe member would steal from me, since I'm a known member of the skin walker pack, so it had to be an outsider. The gun ended up in your cousin's auction house two days after. I wasn't careful with my duties, and I apologize.

"I've come to see if I can help make it right. I'm not sure if burning the weapon will help, since his body is buried somewhere unknown in the Wyoming soil. But there are sacred places where we can trap the spirit so it never harms you or any of your family ever again. With some luck and indian magic we may be able to get this ghost to pass from this realm, but we'll probably have to use young Andrew as bait."

"Whoa," Dean objected, "he's only fifteen! I don't like putting civilians at risk."

"Well," Ellia explained, "its either we do this and we have a risk of _possibly_ getting him killed, or we wait around for the ghost to get him, and then he'll be _garanteed_ to die, along with the rest of his family in Wyoming."

Dean had a sour look on his face. He hated to admit it, but she had a point. They really had only one way to beat this thing, if she delivered on her end of the deal. He didn't like this plan. There were too many unknowns. Was she really on their side? What was this secret indian ritual? Would it really work? And how long would he have to keep the ghost off Andrew?

Ellia didn't like telling Dean what to do. She felt like she was speaking above her station. She was an outsider to this group, and it just wasn't proper etiquette. She had no choice, though, but to call the shots, because she was the only one with a solution. She was just glad that this was a group of humans, and not skin walkers. In her tribe, if she spoke above the pack leader and his mate, they would be nipping at her flanks to show their displeasure of her over-stepping.

"Fine," Dean reluctantly agreed. Andrew threw him a shocked look, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Don't worry Andrew, I'll be there the entire time. I'll keep you alive untill the ritual is done."

"Good," Ellia said, glad to see that she was in agreement with the pack leader, "if your going to be in the circle, with Andrew I need a fourth person for the ceremony. Preferably it should be some one with a gift for languages."

"Sam can be here by nightfall," Dean assured her.

"Then its settled. Who's Sam?"

"My brother."

"For the record, I don't like this," Andrew spoke up.

"Neither do I," Dean agreed.

"Alright, well, I best be getting back before my absence becomes suspicious. We'll do this tomorrow night on the new moon," Ellia said.

The skin walker went into the bathroom, to changed out of the clothes she had been given, and left them neatly folded on the toilet lid. In the blink of an eye she was back in her dog form, and whimpering for Dean to let her out the front door. She neatly leaped over the line of hoodoo dust, and was off into the night.

"I so wish this had been a normal haunting. I don't like putting our lives in the hands of anything supernatural. You can't trust them. Even angels are skeevy. The only one I could ever trust was Castiel."

"You talked to actual angels," Andrew asked, amazed.

"Yeah, kid. Their not all nice and helpful, though. Their always going on about the bigger picture. Never pray to an angel, especially not Zachariah, that guy is the biggest prick of them all."

"What about God?"

"He's practically a dead beat Dad."

0-0-0-0

Sam got to their hotel by seven in the evening. They ordered three large pizzas, a couple orders of cheese sticks, and a two liter of coke. Dean hopped out for a six pack of beer. When they all settled down to eat, Dean apprised his brother of the situation. Of course his brother was more willing to trust the skin walker than Dean was. Dean thought that it was more instinctual to trust the freak now. Even after all these years he knew that Sam still saw himself as the freak of the family.

"So, do you have any idea what our roles will be in this ceremony," Sam asked.

"No clue, but I'm afraid it might have to be in some indian dialect. I'm thinking she'll probably be back later tonight or early in the morning to give us our orders."

"Why doesn't she get members of her tribe to do this?"

"How the heck should I know?"

"Maybe they wouldn't approve of her interference in these circumstances. She did say that she had to sneak out so that the others wouldn't know," Mia commented.

After a short pause in conversation as they all chowed down on their pizzas, Dean nudged his brother from his position on the bed beside him, and said, "She's hot, why don't you hook up with indian girl when this is all over? I know you don't mind it if she's not all human."

Sam threw a glare in the other Winchester's direction, and responded, "I don't need you to hook me up with girls, I do fine on my own."

"Psshh! I wouldn't be surprised if the last time you got laid was when you were soulless. You don't do one night stands, remember? And who could you possibly hook up with round Bobby's?"

Sam sat up straight with indignation, and said, "A lot of things have changed."

"Oh, so you sleep around now," Dean asked, with an unbelieving smirk.

"Can we get off the topic of my love life, ass-hat?"

Dean chuckled, "Fine, bitch."

Shawn and Mia shared a knowing smirk. Shawn had a feeling that the Winchester boys argue their way through half their conversations. Sam always called Dean an ass-hat, and Dean always called Sam a bitch. Shawn thought it was real cute that the brothers were so close.

"Maybe I can hook up with her if her grandpapy lets me live," Andrew commented.

Dean laughed at the kid, "Dude, you are not that smooth. I think she's more woman than you know what to do with."

Andrew blushed, saying, "I got plenty of game."

The rest of the meal was spent teasing Andrew. Andrew tried to prove that he wasn't some loser virgin, bragging about some girls he had been with. Dean didn't believe him, teasing Andrew without mercy. It didn't help that Sam was goading his brother into teasing some one else besides him. Mia took Andrew's side, saying that it was a possibility. Shawn, for the most part, just observed, quietly enjoying the friendly atmosphere.

At the end of the meal, everyone wanted to know about sleeping arrangements. Obviously Andrew knew that he was staying in his room, but Dean didn't seem to want to have to share a room with both his lover and his brother. Apparently he still felt uncomfortable showing Shawn affection in front of Sam. He didn't say anything but since he was pausing awkwardly and not inviting Sam over to their room, it was kind of obvious. Mia saved them all by offering to move in with Shawn and Dean while Sam was put on guard duty.

"Its your turn, anyway, Sam. I've had enough with playing prison guard, this kid drives me nuts with his whining."

Once the three were back in their room, Dean apologized to Shawn. He hung his head, and couldn't meet Shawn's eye. He seemed ashamed of the fact that he couldn't be gay in front of his little brother. Shawn didn't take offense, he was trying to lean more towards understanding.

"Am I the only one who thinks that its weird? I mean, Sam knows that I was with Cas once, and he knows that your my boyfriend, Shawn. Its just Sam has always seen me with girls. I've always been a lady's man in my brother's eyes. I dunno..."

"Knowing, and seeing are two different things," Shawn said, understanding his boyfriend's difficulty for the first time.

"Yeah."

"My mom and dad knew that I was gay before I even knew. There were plenty of boys around my neighborhood to play with, but I didn't like all the rough-housing they did. Instead, I played barbies, and house with this girl Sarah who lived across the street. In elementary school it was easier to hide. I'd play tag with all the other kids, and try to resist the urge to play jump rope with the girls. When I was in middle school, I just got along with girls better, and all the guys just thought I was a lady's man. When I had my first crush, it was on a boy, but I didn't tell anyone. I thought my mom and dad would want a normal son. When I hit high school I finally told my mother that I was attracted to boys, and not girls. I was super nervous, but my mom was really cool about it. When my mom caught me making out with Mathew Hall on the living room couch, I felt all ashamed again. Yet again, my mom reacted better than I thought she would. She gave Matt the, "if you break my son's heart" speech."

Shawn laughed at his old memories, then looked up at his audience of two, and said, "my mom gave me the safe sex talk that night."

Mia laughed, and Dean smirked. Shawn looked at Dean untill his boyfriend looked up at him again, "its all in your head Dean. Your afraid that if your brother sees you being affectionate towards me, it'll change how he sees you. Maybe your afraid that you'll loose some of his respect or something? Its not true. Your brother will see you as the same ol' Dean no matter if your gay, straight, bi, poke-a-dotted, or cross eyed."

Dean wrapped his boyfriend in a big bear hug, saying, "I'd be lost without you Shawn."

Mia, Shawn and Dean called it a night after watching a movie. It was only midnight, but they were worried about being up all night if this skin walker friend of theres ever showed up. Three hours later later they were woken up by that annoying howl again. When Mia went and opened the door, the wolf that was Ellia sat politely on her haunches, waiting for the invitation to come in.

When Mia opened the door and moved aside, the wolf dog licked her right hand in greeting, and trotted pass to the bathroom. The clothes that she wore before were on the toilet lid again. As soon as she pawed the door closed behind her, she took human shape once more, and got dressed.

Once Ellia was presentable, she opened the bathroom door to find the three human's looking at her. Dean was tensed up. She had a distinct feeling that she triggered his protective nature, just for being what she was. Shawn at least greeted her with a small hello, and the female hunter had an amused smirk on her face, as she suggested that they take the party into the other hotel room.

Sam and Andrew hadn't gone to bed after dinner. They had rented a movie, and then when the movie was over, they had worked out together, egging each other on. So when Mia's knock came, Sam was pulling a white t-shirt over his hard abes, and was rubbing a towel through his hair because he had just gotten out of the shower.

Ellia gave off a pleasurable growl from behind Mia's shoulder, at the vision of Sam Winchester. Once Mia walked through the door, and moved far enough into the room to make room for everybody else to enter, Ellia was all over Sam. She got as close to Sam as possible without actually touching, and smelled him from the center of his chest to his collar bone, then from the right side of his collarbone up his neck to his jaw. The only scent on his skin was his own, and oh what a heady smell that was...

"Um," Sam said, thoroughly uncomfortable with the close proximate to this stranger, "hello."

A slow smile spread across her face, as she backed up far enough to get a good look at his face, "Hello there, tall, dark and handsome."

At about that time Dean burst out laughing. He couldn't help it. Sam's startled facial expression, and her calling him tall, dark and handsome just put him over the edge. Sam looked at his brother with a sour-puss twist to his lips, and Ellia turned around to glare at him real quick before she stepped away from Sam to walk further in the room. Finally Dean and Shawn were able to enter, and close the door behind themselves. Sam put more hoodoo dust before the door, to make sure the room was secure.

With six people in the room and Sam's gargantua feet, it was kind of cramped in there. Ellia wouldn't have minded so much if she hadn't somehow gotten stuck next to Shawn who smelled strongly of Dean. She crinkled her nose when she looked at the guy.

"What," Shawn asked.

"Nothing," she said in a sweet voice, looking away and uncrinkling her nose.

"Okay," Ellia declared, clapping her hands to get the attention of the whole group, "Who is the best at remembering things in a foreign language?"

"Probably me," Sam said, raising his hand.

Ellia went to stand by Sam, and smiled a friendly smile, rather than the feral, hungry one she had given him earlier.

"Who is the worst? Andrew and Dean don't count because they won't even be involved in the ceremony itself."

"That would probably be me," Shawn volunteered.

"Good, you'll be the spirit of the east, the horseman of death."

Dean stared at her with a wide-eyed look of fear, before glaring at her, and self-consciously sheilding his boyfriend from her, "We're not summoning death himself, are we? And what do you mean, Shawn will _be_ death."

"Well, yes we are, but don't worry, Shawn will be safe enough."

"Death doesn't like me."

"I doubt it will be the same spirit you are worried about. This spirit has been known to my people since the beginning of the Sioux," Ellia told Dean, trying to reassure him.

"I thought the Cheyenne lived around here," Shawn commented.

"They do, but my great grandmother was Sioux. I am both."

"Now, if we are done with the interruptions I would like to go over everybody's roles," Ellia said, addressing the room at large, and then glaring at Dean as she said, "and if there are any objections, we can hear them at the end."

Dean huffed his consent before he went to sit on the bed Andrew was perched on. Shawn sat on Dean's other side. After everyone took their seats, Ellia, Sam, and Mia taking the other bed, Ellia began her explanations.

"I will take you out to a sacred place tomorrow night. I will have to go out in my wolf form, so that I can better sense the vibrations of magic there. I will have to take almost an entire day out of my time to help you study enough of the Sioux language to get through the ceremony. That means that my pack will know that I'm helping you by tomorrow night. The sacred place is on the reservation. We will probably have to walk through a crowd of my people, but do not engage them, they will move out of the way, but they will want to show up so that I know they dissaprove."

"Why are they so against you helping us," Andrew asked.

"Because there are a few amongst my people, mostly people who are already part of the skin walker pack, who think that my ancester has a right to his revenge. Many Indians died because white men were too greedy to stay on their own damn land!"

"Why do you want to help me then?"

"It is the right thing to do, young Colter."

"Actually my last name is Carson."

"Oh great, even worse," Ellia declared, "if your related to Kit Carson. Colter and Carson were cut from the same cloth."

"Anyway, each of the participants will stand on the outside of the circle on the side of all four cardinal directions. I will stand in the North, and represent the Great Spirit. Normally in a ceremony like this the medicine man, or woman would take my spot, but we don't have one of those so I will have to do. Amelia will be standing in the west, as the White Buffalo Spirit, a bringer of dreams and visions. Sam will be across from me as the Warrior Spirit. Its a good thing we have a true warrior in that role."

Ellia smiled a flirtatious smile at Sam as she ran her hand along his muscular arm. Dean cleared his throat, and coughed, "get a room" into his fist.

"Right, anyway, Shawn will be on my left side, as the Spirit of Death. To begin the ceremony, everybody - and this is the fun part - will be smoking from the pipe."

Ellia smiled, as all present put their eyebrows up in silent inquiry.

"The pipe will be full of an herb that is much like peyote. Amelia will be take the first hit, and then she will walk around so that she can present the pipe to the three of us. It will take the ghost a little while to get past the wards that are set up around the reservation. We will sit on the ground, while the herb makes its way through our systems."

"Why is it necessary to be high," Sam asked.

"So, that we can see the great spirits. You'll understand once we're out there. When the ghost arrives, I will start my song. At the first note, he will be trapped within the circle. You each will have to do your parts to call down the power all around us. Now, at some point we will be touched by the spirits we invoke. If all goes well, Shawn will walk forward, and grab the ghost."

"He'll what," Dean interrupted.

"It won't harm him, I promise. The Spirit of Death, and his vessel need not fear a ghost."

"He's going to be possessed by this death spirit of yours? Hell, no! I don't think so!"

"Dean," Shawn said, trying to interrupt his over-protective tirade.

"No, I will not allow you to do this Shawn! Its dangerous! You can end up dead after a reaper, or whatever this thing is, takes possession of your body. Your not doing this and its final," Dean said, kissing his boyfriend on the mouth before he could object.

Shawn's heart was pounding in his chest when they seperated again, and he felt a little short of breath.

"Whoa,"Andrew said from his position on Dean's other side. Andrew had a sneaking suspicion from earlier in the day that the two guys might be _together_, together, but he had never really thought to ask. Now he knew that they were gay and it caught him a little off guard, because they hadn't really shown much affection towards each other when they were in front of company.

Dean looked at Andrew, and then quickly away. He was still a little embarrassed to have done that in front of everybody. He wasn't normally into PDA, and it wasn't like he had just put a quick peck on Shawn's lips either. He had been very thorough. Before the silence could become too umbearable, Sam spoke up.

"I can always switch roles."

"No, I need you for the warrior spirit, its very wordy, and your perfect for the role, because you've been a warrior all your life."

"Then let him switch with me," Mia suggested.

"No, the white buffalo is a woman, and the death spirit will probably not come if his vessel is female, anyway. The death spirit is most important. And before you volunteer, Dean, you can't do that, unless your planning on leaving the young boy unprotected. I doubt your boyfriend can take over your role."

"I don't like this," Dean growled.

"I know," Shawn said, throwing his arms around Dean's shoulders, and snuggling up to him.

"Okay, why don't we all go to sleep for a few hours? We can start in the morning. How's ten sound to everybody," Ellia suggested.

Shawn, Dean, and Mia went off to their room while the skin walker went into the bathroom to change into her canine form once more. When she came out again, she layed down across the bottom of Andrew's bed, as extra protection. She had already placed protection wards all around the hotel, and parking lot, but she felt better sitting on top of the kid's feet.

"Goodnight Andrew, Elia."

"Goodnight," Andrew said.

Ellia lifted her head off her paws, with her ears perked up at her name. When she gave a small "woof" of a bark, Sam took that as her way of saying goodnight. Sam usually slept without a t-shirt, because he got hot at night, but he left it on because of the way Ellia had responded to him when they meet.

Mia left the hotel for an hour, to give Shawn and Dean some privacy. Dean was still pretty upset. He didn't like the idea of putting Shawn in danger, but he didn't see any way to back out of this whole mess, without failing Andrew. Ellia had assured him that everything would be fine, but he didn't want to take a skin walker's word on it. They had already gotten the rifle out of the evidence locker that morning, and burned it. The stupid ghost was still out there! They had no idea where the bones would be buried, so Dean hoped that stupid ceremony would work. They couldn't scare it like they had done with that guy at the saw mill years ago, because this one was patient. I guess waiting for almost two centuries for revenge makes you pretty patient. The thing seemed to know to avoid the hunters. Dean also hoped the thing would get close enough so that they could spring this trap of theirs, or he would be stupid enough to fall for it.

Dean paced the room, back and forth untill Shawn got tired of watching. He told Dean to come over to him, and held out his arms to him. Dean knelt down in front of him and placed his head in his abdomin, wrapping his arms protectivly around Shawn's torso. Shawn ran his hands through Dean's short hair, trying to sooth away his tension.

"I'm going to be just fine. I don't understand why your freaking out about all this."

"I don't like reapers, they've already taken so much from me. And death, like, literally the guy who made all the reapers, he doesn't like me. I've cheated him too many times. I shouldn't have brought you on this hunt."

"I'll take the risk."

When Dean lifted his head to look up at Shawn, there were tears in his eyes. Shawn's heart broke to see it. He was really scared for him. Why was he over-reacting?

"I just got you back. You can't die."

It just dawned on Shawn in that moment that Dean had lost his mother, father, "uncle", and a lover to the job of hunting. That's a lot of death to take in one lifetime. Dean wasn't even forty yet. Shawn knew that he couldn't just laugh off his fears, and make Dean feel better.

"Make love to me Dean."

Dean was very careful and loving this time. He took his time, gently paying homage to Shawn's body. When Dean's mouth wrapped around his cock, Shawn gasped in pleasure. He felt like the most blessed person in the world, as his lover took care of his every need.

0-0-0-0

The next day was spent studying pronunciation of indian words. There was no way any of them were going to be able to remember all these strange new words, so Ellia came up with a new system. She sent Dean out to buy two tape recorders, and headphones. When he came back, she recordered all the words that Sam and Mia would have to say during the ceremony. She said that Sam and Mia could speak along with the recordings, when the time came. They still had to practice pronunciation so that they would speak perfectly, though. Shawn had no words, his entire part in the ceremony was to light a few candles, and wait with his head down untill he felt the presence of the spirit working through him.

After a few hours of being watched by a moody Dean, Ellia kicked him out of the room. She told him to take Andrew with him, because the kid was bouncing off the walls with nervous energy. When Dean argued that it wouldn't be safe for Andrew outside, Ellia told him about the wards she had placed around the perimeter the night before.

After she was sure that Mia had pronunciation down pat, she asked to speak to Sam alone. Sam looked at Ellia nervously, like she was going to pounce on him any second. She had to laugh at his facial expression.

"Relax, Sam. It will be all business between you and me untill Andrew is out of danger. After, well, that will be up to you."

She couldn't help but notice that Sam smelled of arousal when she looked at him with hunger in her eyes, again. It was good to know that he wasn't a man lover, like his brother, after all. Yeah, she was going to have fun with this one.

"The reason I wanted you alone," she said, "is because your part in the ceremony comes with a little dance. You'll be embarrassed to perform this dance in front of your friends, I'm assuming, so I dismissed them. Now, when you actually do the whole show and dance later on, you'll be too high to care, and the others will probably be too involved with their parts to even notice what your doing."

"But Shawn's not doing much of anything," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, well, he'll be wearing a hood, and believe me, he'll be plenty occupied with the Death Spirit."

The rain dance is what Sam had to do, and after he got over his feelings of awkwardness, he performed spectacularly. When he asked what they needed rain for, Ellia laughed, saying that it was a common misconseption for non-natives to assume that the rain dance was for rain. The rain dance, it seemed, was done by warriors before battle, in her great-great-grandfather's time. It was a dance that was done to call down the sky spirits, called thunderbirds, who were very powerful. If the rain dance was successful, the warriors of the village would be able to strike down their enemies. She told him that there were slight moderations to the dance, and the words so that Sam would be calling forth the Great Warrior Spirit, rather than the thunderbirds.

After she deemed them all ready for the ceremony that they were going to perform later on in the night, Ellia jogged down the street, to unbury a duffle that she had hidden there the morning before. She jogged back to the hotel and showed everybody what was inside. She pulled out a warriors outfit which included some buffallo hide pants, and a wooden, and bone beaded "shirt", which left much to be desired for consealment. She put the warrior's outfit in Sam's hand, and warned him to be careful not to tangle any of the beaded pieces. For Mia, she pulled out a white dress, that seemed to be made of white buffalo hide. For Shawn she brought out a black robe that looked like it could belong to a franciscan monk, and a black blanket that he was suppose to wear over his head like a hood.

Dean came over from his game with Andrew to see what everyone was gathered around for, and said "seriously, costumes?"

"Yes, costumes," Ellia said, getting a little testy over Dean's obvious lack of respect for her culture.

"Dean," Sam warned.

"Whatever," he said huffily, before walking away.

0-0-0-0

Everyone climbed into the Impala at moonrise, ready to get this hunt over with. Sam couldn't help the small smirk that came to his face when Ellia said that she was going to sit on his lap on the way over to the rez. But it was all business when Dean started the engine.

"Okay Dean," Ellia said, ready to give directions, "When you leave this parking lot your going to have to burn rubber. Go as fast as you dare, don't stop if you can help it. Even if we have a red light, if the way is clear, go. I'll deal with the cops if we run into any. Luckily my cousin is the one who patrols this part of town. If the ghost kills the engine before we hit the highway, we're kinda screwed."

"Great," Dean commented as he put the car in reverse.

"Just get to the highway, and take the first exit after you see the the Cheyenne reservation signs. I'll point out the way from there."

Luck was with them because, the two lights they passed were green, and then they were on the highway. Dean did eighty-five, ninety all the way down, leaving an angry faced ghost to glare at his tail lights. Once he got off on the right exit, Ellia directed him through a few turns, and curvy country roads untill they went up a dirt trail that was lined with people. She had been right, about her people being angry, there was a scowl on every face, there were even a few skin walkers in their dog clothing, that were snapping at her heals. They walked through the crowd as insults were thrown in Ellia's direction. Only Ellia knew what they said though, since it was all said in Cheyenne. She had been right about them moving out of the way though. It was almost as if they didn't want to touch her, or any of the group that followed.

Once they were out of sight of the crowd, Ellia stripped off her shirt, bra, and jeans before changing into the wolf. They were all a little bit shocked at her lack of modesty, but they quickly got over it as they had to chase after the white figure in the dark. When Ellia finally stopped, they were sitting in a field that was just as unrmarkable as all the others they had passed through. The dog sneezed, and then sat down and began her transformation back to human. Ellia sat before them all, human once more, she was crouched down with her arms across her breasts. Her private parts were mostly covered by her legs and the dark.

Mia quickly stepped forward to hide the naked woman from view, handing her a cotton sundress that was in the bag. She also spread the black blanket between them to help further shield her from view. Once fully dressed again, Ellia thanked the other woman and went to stand on the east side of the circle, directing Shawn where to stand, and set up. She moved all around to the different places so that she could show everybody their places. Dean stood in the middle with Andrew as everybody else got ready.

Sam dug a small pit near where he stood, so that he could place the hickory wood, that was needed for the ceremony, there. Mia placed an incense pot before her, and Shawn put three black candles before him. Then they snuck behind the few trees that were in shouting distance, and quickly changed. Dean started snickering when he saw his brother in his get up, and was quickly told to be silent.

Ellia was no longer trying to be timid and non-threatening anymore. As the acting wisewoman she was in charge, so it was no longer necessary to shrink her shoulders before Dean. She didn't like Dean's disrespect. The four spirit vessels sat on the grass cross-legged, as Mia lighted the peace pipe, and inhaled. She choked on the thick smoke, and as soon as she got over her coughing fit, she stood, and presented the pipe to Ellia in exactly the manner she had been taught. Ellia sat straight backed, and confident, taking a deep lungful, and letting it curl slowly out of her mouth and nose. Shawn hesitated, afraid that he was going to choke, but after getting the stair down from Ellia's stone cold eyes, he took the pipe, and smoked some. He coughed just like Mia had, bringing his hand up to his face, before the retching sound could escape his throat. When Sam took a hit, he held it in for a second before letting it all out in a rush, only coughing once before taking in a big breath of clean air.

Dean watched his brother smoke like a pro, and a sparkle came to his eye as he teased him, "Seems like you've done this before, Sammy. Was pot part of you college experience?"

Andrew snickered.

"Shut up, ass-hat," was the only response Sam deemed necessary.

Five minutes later, Andrew hid behind Dean, saying, "Shit, he's here."

For the next ten minutes Dean was too preoccupied with keeping the ghost off Andrew with a iron fire poker to even notice anything else, including his brother doing a silly dance. He did notice that the way Ellia sang her song was making the hairs creep up from the back of his neck.

Sam, Mia, Shawn, and Ellia could see the lines of magic now that they were high, and any tree, or animal in the vicinity seemed to be alight with its own fire. Even the air itself seemed to have its own shape, and current. It felt like they were standing beneath a river. The ghost was made up of blue light. The "circle" trap was really an oblong shape with triangular shapes at each corner. Each of these shapes had intricate lines inside. On closer inspection, you would see that there was every animal or plant native to the americas there, and a few that weren't, like the horse, and cat. Where Sam stood, there was a warrior indian on a horse. Mia stood above a picture of herding buffalo, with one white one in the center. Shawn's square had a skeletal horse on it with haunting white eyes. Where Ellia was there was a picture of a brilliant green and white tree that had grown twisted, and bent by the winds of the plain.

Shawn tried real hard not to look up after he had lit the candles. Ellia had given him very simple instructions to follow, but she stressed the importance that he listen to her. She said that if he looked up at the death spirit, he would either be blinded for life, or killed. She told him to keep his eyes respectfully on the floor, and his head bent. It was hard because he wanted to look at the intricate animal carvings that surrounded the lines of the trap, and he didn't like staring at the dead horse beneath his feet. He could've sworn he saw the thing move. And then he wasn't worried about anything, as he felt a cold presence behind him. His eyes were wide open in fear as he stared at the ground a few inches in front of him.

Dark boots soon stood in his line of sight, and he dared not look up. He broke out in a cold sweat, as a hand decended on his shoulders, first his left, then his right. It gripped him hard, and still, he dared not look up. He blinked, and the black clothed legs that belonged to death dissapeared. A coldness spread from his shoulders throughout the rest of his body, and then his body was moving on its own. He stood straight, and adjustedthe blanket so that it was more securely wrapped around his head, shielding his face from view.

Mia, Ellia and Sam were also standing straight and still, as if they were entranced. The ghost stopped what it was doing, finally catching on to what was going on around him. He quivered in fear as he looked up to see the four great spirts looking at him. The Warrior Spirit's eyes glowed red, The Buffalo Spirit's white, The Great Spirit's blue, and Death's, if he cared to look, and he didn't, was black. Death did not speak, but the rest spoke in unison.

"You do not belong here," they said, as the ghost quivered.

"They killed my family, they took our lands, they slaughtered the buffalo in waste! I deserve my revenge!"

The Warrior Spirit spoke up, saying, "We do not slaughter women and children. That is not our way. The man who killed you is dead. His decendents should not have been a part of your quirrel. You should have rode the wild mustang to the peaceful realms, now the black spirit will take you, and punish you as he sees fit."

"No! I don't deserve this," the indian screemed.

"Have faith," The Great Spirit said, "your youngest daughter surrivived the attack. The body I possess now is of your blood. And she is a good, kind person."

"You do not belong here," the three spirits said in unison, once more, "our judgement is final."

Death, in Shawn's body walked forward, and the ghost who was paralized by fear, with no where to run, just stood there, as the black spirit approached. When Death stood in front of the ghost, he reached out and embraced the quivering indian. When the ghost was gone, obsorbed by the reaper, Shawn's body turned around to walk back to its original spot.

Dean spoke up then, softly asking, "What are you?"

Dean heard a voice in his head, a creepy whispery voice, that he totally expected but was still frightened to hear. It said, "I am the first reaper. I ruled you mortals while my father was trapped in hell. These people worship me, and fear me. That's the way it should be."

Once Shawn was back in his place, facing inwards towards the circle, all four vessels collapsed to the ground, as the Spirits left them. Dean dashed across the grass, to be by his boyfriend's side. His relief was choking him when Shawn's eyes opened. Sam and Ellia groaned as they sat up. Mia didn't wake.

"Mia," Sam called out to the dark space off to his left, "Amelia?"

Everybody got up, and rushed to the unconcious woman's side. Andrew got there first. They all hovered, unsure what to do. Her eyeballs were rolling around under her lids, as Andrew had pointed out, but she just wasn't snapping out of it.

"What's wrong with her," Sam asked.

"What did you do to her," Dean snapped at Ellia.

Ellia's response was spoken in Sioux, as her brain hadn't switched back yet from the conversation with the ghost.

"Speak english, woman!"

"Oh, sorry. She's having a vision journey. That's what happens when your possessed by the White Buffalo. She'll be fine in a minute."

Just as she finished speaking, Mia bolted up into a sitting position. She clung to Dean automatically, and started crying. Dean's arms automatically went around her, and he dragged her upright, as he got up from his crouched position. She kissed him three times on his cheek, much to his surprise, before burying her face back into his jacket.

Ellia shrugged when Dean looked at her for an explanation, and she said, "maybe she saw you die in her vision."

"I did,"Mia said from the muffled confines of Dean's coat.

"Its okay, now. I'm currently alive, and the rest we can figure out."

"Okay," Mia said as she pulled away, and wiped the left over tears off her face. Her second order of business was to smack Sam hard in the chest. Ellia snorted with laughter. She must have had _some_ vision quest. She remembered when her mother had, had a vision in a dream. When she woke up, she had dragged her brother out of bed by his hair. Sometimes visions let you see into your loved ones lives with more clarity than they would want you to have.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"I would expect it from Dean, but not you! Shame on you!"

Sam looked at her all puzzled, before she blirted out, "you have a daughter that you don't know about. Does a one night stand by the name of Molly sound familiar to you?"

There was a pregnant silence as everybody stood in shock. Nobody had seen that one coming.

"Well, yeah, Molly's the girl Aphrodite hooked me up with. I used a condom though."

"It probably broke, and its either her contraceptive failed, or she wasn't using any at the time."

Ellia looked around her nervously, and then motioned for the group to start walking back to the car, saying, "we should move along. This isn't a good place to be at night."

When they walked back to where they had left the car, they all noticed that the crowd had dispersed. Ellia explained that no Cheyenne in their right mind would stick around while the Black Spirit was being summoned. On the ride back Dean inquired as to what had happened during the ceremony. Mia thought that it was strange that he didn't know, since he had been there to witness it, and she said so too.

"No," Dean said, "what I heard you all saying was a bunch of indian nonsense."

Ellia did a quick translation of the whole conversation for Dean. When they arrived at the motel again, Ellia, Sam, Shawn and Mia got out of the car. Dean told the rest that he was going to drive Andrew home. Ellia walked Sam to his room, and helped him take off his boots. He had been in a silent brooding mood ever since they started their walk back from the field. She helped Sam out of his warrior outfit, as he didn't seem too kean on doing much of anything except for mentally kicking himself in the head.

"I didn't know," Sam said in a small voice.

"I know. I also know that you are the type of man who takes care of his I know that your being too hard on yourself right now. You did not fail anyone. As you just said, you did not know. One day your path will cross with your daughter. You will do right by her when you meet her. Don't worry, blood calls to blood, you'll see. Now, _warrior_ let me take care of you. We will have this room to ourselves tonight, and I fully intend to take advantage of it."

She had called him warrior in the Sioux language, and he had, for some reason, understood her. He reached up to her and claimed her lips with his. Making love to the indian woman was a little like fucking Ruby. She jumped up on his lap, and she was so feral in her love making. She smelled like grass, and tasted like the sweat stickiness of the herb they had smoked earlier.

When his hand reached up her skirt, and brushed against the smooth petals of her "flower garden," he wondered if she shaved, or if she was naturally bald down there. He tried laying her down on the bed below his body, but she just fought her way back on top. This girl, apparently, did not like to be dominated. She seemed to enjoy the struggle though, so he tried to get on top once more, just for the fun of it.

They fought an intense battle of wills against each other even before they were fully undressed. Sam tried to bite her skin, enjoying the sound of the rumble that seemed to come from deep in her chest. She kept trying to shove him back down in the matress, once she noticed that his nipping at her skin was making her purr with ecstasy. She would bite his skin back, untill he let out a moan of his own. When they kissed, she fought his tongue with her own. He felt like he was loosing an arguement over and over again.

Once their clothes were all gone, she climbed on top and rode him like a pro, bouncing up and down, swirling her hips all around. She ran her hands through her hair, and squeezed her own tits in a sexy show of she felt her orgasm's approach, she lifted her pussy halfway up his shaft, and demanded that Sam fuck her. Sam felt his balls clench up as he thrust himself up inside her.

When they had both finished, they lay together, and talked for a long while. She assured him that her love bites wouldn't affect his human status. She would have to be in dog form in order for the skin walker bite to be effective. Sam just realized afterwards that he hadn't been wearing a condom. She said that he had nothing to worry about. Skin walkers don't carry STD's and she would have been able to smell if he had any. She had also waved away his concern about children, telling him that she wasn't in heat, and she was on the shot, anyway.

Their conversation changed to other things. Sam was interested in her family, her culture, and even her skin walker pack. Then Sam tried to imagine what a daughter of his would be like. They talked for hours, untill Ellia sang an old Sioux song that her mother use to sing to her every night. Sam fell asleep while listening to her soothing voice.

0-0-0-0

In the morning, Sam woke up alone. He would have prefered it if the woman had stayed. This was the first time he had been the victim of a hit and run, and he found that he didn't like it. Oh well, time to get up. When he rolled out of bed he saw a note on his bedside table.

_Sam,_

_Figured I'd get the family reunion over with. They're not going to be too happy with me. I really enjoyed last night, even the talking part. Remember what I told you, blood calls to blood. I promise you'll see your daughter. Go easy on yourself, and keep your head down while your hunting. Call me if you ever travel back across Wyoming, I wouldn't mind doing this again. My number is in your phone, under my indian name._

_May the warrior always be at your side in battle,_

_Ellia_

After getting dressed, Sam tucked the note inside his his jacket pocket. He packed up his stuff and put his bags in the trunk of his car. He had been planning on just hitting the rode. Dean and him didn't go through silly good-byes when they occasionally hooked up on a case. He knocked on his brother's door anyway.

When the door was opened, Dean gave his usual greeting, "Sup Sammy?"

"You wanna get breakfast?"

"Sure, just let me get my jacket."

Sam waved at Shawn through the door that Dean had left open. When Dean returned with his jacket on, they got into Sam's car, and drove to a nice diner. Sam was a little relieved that Dean hadn't thought to invite the other two. Not that he didn't like Shawn or Mia, they were getting to be like family, but he just sometimes missed one on one time with his brother.

Once they were comfortably seated at their booth, both brothers picked up their menus to find what they wanted to eat. Sam ordered a veggie omlet, and Dean ordered his usual stuff, except for the new addition of wheat toast rather than white.

"I thought you hated wheat," Sam commented when the waitress left.

"Yeah, well, I'm thirty-eight Sam. I need to start incorporating healthy food choices into my diet, or something."

Sam snickered before he responded, "I'm guessing this isn't your idea. You would never use such a big word as incorporating."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Its Shawn's idea."

"Then why don't you just cut out the pork?"

The look Dean gave him was the look a little old lady would wear on her face if she heard you swearing in church. He then grunted out a slight sound of amusement and said , "That's never going to happen. I need my bacon!"

Sam smiled as he picked up his coffee. Same old Dean. When Dean put down his coffe cup again, he looked uncomfortable. It was a rare sight to see Dean fidget with uncertainty, so Sam sat back and enjoyed the moment before taking pity on him.

"Spit it out Dean."

"Your not... The PDA with Shawn yesterday..."

Sam couldn't help the smirk that came back at his lips. He knew what this was all about. Dean hadn't really been this unsure with his words since they were kids and he had tried to ask wether Dad had "the talk" with Sam yet.

"Dean, your still my big brother. Nothings changed. Even though your with a guy now, I'm not going to think of you any differently. Besides, your man card had already been taken away when we picked up that doppleganger baby. Remember? It can't get any worse than that."

"Well some one had to shut it up! Take that smirk and stuff it, Sam."

Sam chuckled a little longer while while his brother glared. The waitress came to refill their coffees before Dean could scramble across the table and choke his little brother. When their food was out, subject changed from Dean to Sam.

"I'm guessing Molly is the girl you went out to see when you were suppose to be getting me flu medicine, and pie."

"Yeah," Sam said, taking his turn at being uncomfortable, "but its a good thing I didn't come back sooner, because then you wouldn't have had your cherry popped with Cas."

"Hey, my cherry wasn't popped, Cas was on bottom."

"Aw, way too much information!"

"But we're not talking about me now, Sammy. What are you going to do about your kid?"

"I don't know. I don't even know her last name. Its not like we meet on a case. I guess I can see if she still lives in the same town, or if not I can see if I can find out her name from the lease, and track her down."

"Hey Sammy.."

When Sam looked up at him, Dean said, "You couldn't have known, you know that right?"

"Yeah, I know. But Dean, when I find her, what am I going to do about what we do? I can't imagine leaving her unprotected. Remember what happened to Adam? Dad tried to give him a normal life, and he was eaten by ghouls"

Dean shuddered at the memory, responding to his brother's question with, "I don't know Sam. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"We?"

"Yeah, I'm her uncle, and you best believe I'm not leaving you to deal with this bullshit on your own. Besides, I'm the one with the babysitting experience."

When Sam hit the rode back home, he felt a lot better to have his brother on his side. He was a little pissed that Aphrodite had neglected to tell him that he had a child out there somewhere. What could you really do though? She was a God. He took comfort in the fact that being in the business of hunting, he had gotten good at tracking people. He was going to track that Molly woman down, and be in his daughter's life. As for the rest of it, well, he decided to go with Dean's advice. He would decide after he had found her.

_a/n: Okay, I'm not sure if the flow of this story is right. When I started, I was in a different mood. The religion of the native americans in this story is mixed. The Sioux religion does have The Great Spirit, The White Buffalo Spirit, and thunderbirds, but The Warrior Spirit, and the Death Spirit is something I got from one of my favorite novels. The White Buffalo is a woman, and she brings on dreams and visions, and of course I was reminded of Peyote, which some native american tribes use to smoke before going on their spirit quests. I hope this chapter didn't just plain suck. I dunno if I'm happy with it, but then again, I can be hard on myself when it comes to my art. The ideas I got for pack etiquette comes form another of my favorite authors, who writes about a werewolf pack. In her story most gay werewolves are killed. There's only one gay werewolf thats known in the story, and he only survived cuz his werewolf side is really dominant._


	11. Sandman Part I

Shawn woke up in a Alabama hotel room feeling content. He couldn't have imagined how his life was going to be nine months after meeting the sleepy haired brunette who was cuddled up beside him. He had passed up a job in New York, which was one of his favorite places to be, to hunt monsters with his boyfriend. The boyfriend in question ran his hand up his side from where it had been resting on his naked hip, and stopped at the lower ribcage. He could hear him mumble something, but it wasn't clear.

"What did you say," Shawn asked.

"I said," Dean repeated in a louder voice, "I love you."

Shawn grinned, "I love you too."

"Just wanted you to know, don't make a big deal about it," Dean grumbled sleepily.

Shawn's stomach started vibrating with silent laughter. Dean looked up at him with a squinty scowl and said, "Stop that, I'm trying to snooze."

"Oh, sorry, Mr. grumpy-gus," Shawn replied, still wearing a broad grin.

Dean grumbled unintelligibly, and then was asleep again with his forehead against Shawn's shoulder. Five minutes later, the knock came. It was Mia, on schedule as usual. Dean woke with a start, and sat up.

"Just a minute," Shawn called, as they got out of bed to put on some clothes. Dean paused to admire Shawn's ass, thinking back on the days when he thought that the only attractive body was a curvy one. It was amazing how much things had changed. He looked away before his thoughts gave him a boner, and slipped a t-shirt over his head.

"Good morning," Mia greeted, as Shawn let her in the room.

Shawn was more than happy to return her greeting, but Dean just grumbled some more, because he wasn't a morning person.

"Well, we have some options this morning," Mia said as she strolled in with her computer, "We have one in Missouri where people are dieing in their sleep, and a church that caught on fire in Mississippi with no accelerant, and no explainable source."

"Where in Missouri," Dean asked.

"Cape Girardeau"

"Then to the church it is!"

Dean's phone rang at that moment, as if it objected to his decision. It wasn't a number that was in his contacts, but the advanced caller ID had Cassie's name on it, his ex-girlfriend.

"Hello, Cassie. How are you this morning?"

"Not too good," came the soft response. Dean's heart began to pound, as he heard the frailty in her voice. That girl was a force of nature, she never talked like that. Even if she had a cold she still talked with confidence, and authority.

"I heard that people are dying in their sleep over there."

"Yeah, and I think I have whatever they got. CDC is here, but their stumped so I was hoping that this may be something you deal with. I was feeling a little tired a few days ago so I went to bed early. When I woke in the morning, I was still tired. Yesterday, I couldn't find the energy to get up for work. This morning..." Cassie sighed heavily into the phone, "I figured that I should call you before I grew too tired to bother."

"How long do you have?

"I-" Cass struggled to stay awake, just a little While longer.

"Hey," Dean shouted, "Try to stay awake! How long do you have?"

"Probly have thirty-six before coma... Die on the second night of coma. So tired..."

The phone fell from her ear and clattered to the floor. She heard some squawking from the ear-piece as Dean tried to get her to pick the phone back up. It was of no use, she had already spent so much energy in talking already, that she couldn't even lift her own fingers. She had one dreary thought, as she drifted off to sleep again, and it was that her mom would have to send her off to the hospital as soon as she found her. They always went out for lunch once a week, and that was today. Her man was down in New Orleans on business.

"Damn that girl, she seems to just attract trouble! I've never meet anyone who was in the middle of supernatural trouble twice," Dean exclaimed, as soon as he hung up the phone.

"To Missouri it is," Dean relented.

"Who's Cassie," Mia asked.

"My ex."

0-0-0-0

They got to Cassie's house in a few hours, with Dean driving like a maniac whenever he thought it safe. By the time he got there, Cassie had already been sent to the hospital. He had called her cell phone which was answered by her mother and got directions there. Mia, and Shawn had stayed quiet during the entire trip, sensing Dean's frantic worry. Dean flashed a sheriff's badge at the security guard at the desk, and said something about needing to question a patient, before walking off. Mia stayed behind to fill in a few more details with the guard, as Dean walked on.

Once he reached Cassie's room he went and sat right down on the side of the bed. When he grabbed her hand, she stirred and opened her eyes. There was a guy sitting in the corner, and he looked at Dean with a glare. Dean ignored him.

"Hey, you made it," she said, flashing one of her brilliant smiles.

"Hun, who is this guy?"

"This is an old friend of mine, Dean. I called him in this morning. Dean, meet my husband, Freddie," She said, throwing a tired smile in the other guy's direction.

Cassie's husband was maybe an inch taller than Dean, a black man with short hair. He was dressed in casual clothes, that looked like they might be expensive. They were both checking each other out as if they were two bucks ready to butt heads over a female. Dean worried that this guy wasn't worthy of Cassie's affection, and Freddie was worried about the fact that he had never heard of Dean before now. That's when they heard hurrying feet out in the hall, and in the next second, Shawn and Mia were in the doorway.

Cassie looked over at the new visitors and asked, "Who're you?"

"Oh they're with me. That's Amelia, and this is Shawn."

"Oh, that's nice," Cassie whispered before dozing off again.

Shawn hadn't missed the fact that Dean didn't introduce him as his boyfriend, but then maybe it wasn't the best time. Dean started talking to Fred, and was explaining to him that he was a police officer from a few towns over, and that he needed some information about who Cassie had come in contact with before she started showing symptoms, when Cassie woke up again.

"Where's Sam? Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine. He's just switched to desk duty."

"Oh?"

She looked a little confused, but let it drop. Maybe she was too tired to pursue the train of thought, because her eyelids just started drooping, and she was fast asleep within seconds. Dean's worry lines started to deepen as he stared at her. When he squeezed her hand, she didn't even twitch.

"Don't worry, she's not in a coma yet. Its too early for that. She's just resting, she's now down to fifteen minutes at a time but she was up earlier, before you arrived. The first three days are gradual, but the last four happen kind of quick, it seems."

"Excuse me," Dean said.

Dean left rather abruptly then, and Shawn went to follow him but Mia grabbed his arm before he could even take half a step. She shook her head in negation. She could tell that it hurt him to see Dean in pain, and she understood that he only wanted to comfort his boyfriend, but she had gotten to know Dean pretty well, and she knew that what he needed most was some time to himself.

Dean went to the bathroom down the hall, and locked the door after determining that he was the only one inside. He started pacing from the door to the last sink, and back again. They were quick yet firm strides, as he struggled between pain and fear. A few people tried the handle, but when the door held firm they moved on to the next bathroom. After the tenth round trip Dean unlocked the door, and swung it wide, startling a male nurse on the other side.

"Sorry, I needed space to myself for a little while," he said.

When Dean walked back into Cassie's room, he had a coffee in his hand as an excuse to why it had taken him so long to get back. He pulled out a notebook and pen, striding forward with a new determination. He continued to ask questions like the ones he had been asking before he had been interrupted by Cassie, trying to find out every possible fact that he could compare with the other victims.

Next, Mia and Dean went to the nurses' station and asked where the CDC was set up. The nurse that Dean talked to paged a doctor, and once the doctor was informed who Dean, and Mia were, he walked them to a conference room. The doc left to get the director who was set up in one of the hospital's laboratories, examining samples of the new patient's (Cassie's) blood.

Dean and Mia's story was that they were here to find out if this disease was contagious, and if it could be spread to other cities. When the CDC director arrived she talked to them about the victims so far. She said that the first victims were a couple teenagers who were taking Ritalin for ADHD, and at first local doctors thought that there was something wrong with the drugs they were taking. So they had called up a few drug companies to report the Ritalin taint. The drug company sent investigators to find out what was wrong. They found nothing wrong with the medicine, and there were no such reports from any other town or city. The teenagers lasted a long time after they were taken off the drug, in fact, one was still alive.

The second group was made up of men and women who had sleep disorders and people who stay up late to study or work. Fortunately the hospital seemed to sit outside of the affected area, and most of the medical staff was not affected. One of the interns and one of the attending doctors lived in the affected area. They went home after a thirty hour shift, went to bed, and never woke up again. Of course nobody knew that it was a pandemic, at that point. They were still trying to find out if the first batch of victims had anything else in common when the second group started coming in.

They quickly realized that the disease wasn't being spread through any means that the director, or anyone on her team knew of. It wasn't airborn, it wasn't in the water, or spread through pests. It wasn't even mosquito season yet, but they had sprayed pesticides anyway. The disease seemed to be choosing its victims. Three more victims had popped up (including Cassie), and they seemed to be those high energy, driven, jogging round town at six in the morning types.

"At this rate, the only people we are going to have left in town are bums, and dead-beats. Of course, if we can't stop this thing, everyone is going to be dead."

"Has anyone tried skipping town," Dean asked.

"Not yet, as far as I know. We tried to keep this out of the papers, so that we didn't start a panic, but you know, the media catches up eventually," the director responded.

"Has it spread to any other areas," Mia asked.

"No, its been sticking right around town, which is another strange thing to add to the list."

Dean thought that it would be kind of suspicious if he asked for the names of the current patients so that he could do a follow up investigation. They were suppose to be police officers who were just trying to find out the warning signs of this "disease," in case it did spread. They were about to shake the doctor's hand and leave when she spoke up.

"You know, we sent out information to some of the towns and cities in the area this morning. So, I'm kind of curious, why are you guys here?"

"Oh," Dean said, turning on his charm, "I volunteered myself, and my partner to come up here and see what sort of things the CDC may be hiding. And.. ah, well, you see I also came to check up on a friend who fell sick with this thing."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to here that. You must be devastated!"

"Yeah," Dean said, clearing his throat, "Its kind of tough."

"Well, if we can get family consent, we could try putting your friend on uppers. It seems to be the only thing that delays death."

They both thanked the doctor for her time, and parted ways. Dean went back to Cassie's room to retrieve Shawn, who was making friendly conversation with Fred. Mia noticed that Dean tried to avoid looking at the hospital bed where Cassie was sleeping the day away. She also noticed how worried Cassie's husband was when they all left the room. He was a good guy, and you could tell that he cared for her, he just tried to put on a brave face when there was company in the room.

Mia filled Shawn in on their conversation with the CDC director as Dean drove to a motel just off the interstate. He looked up all the names that were in the papers, to see where they lived. Then they were off again, to the first victim's house named Todd Vertilli, to talk to the family. The lady who answered the door had swollen and red rimmed eyes, with messy hair. She wore tanned yoga pants, a crumpled white blouse, and a long grey sweater jacket.

Once they identified themselves as police, the woman put her mean face on and said, "I've already talked to doctors, reporters, and I've even let someone in to search my house to see if my son was on drugs. So, what could the police possibly want from me, huh? I've lost my only son, so why won't you people just leave me alone?"

"Look, I know this is tough," Mia said, stepping forward.

The lady scoffed at Mia, before she could say any more, and asked the question some parents ask, "Do you have any children?"

"Yes," Mia answered, "her name is Emily, and she's my one and only. I would be devastated too, if I lost her. Please Mrs. Vertilli we just want to ask a few questions. We'll try to make this as painless as possible, and then we'll be out of your hair."

"Alright," the lady relented. She walked back into the living room, leaving the door open, and allowing Mia and Dean to enter as they will.

Dean closed the door behind them, and sat down in a recliner chair, while Mia took a position on the couch beside Mrs. Vertilli. He let her take point on this interview, because she was so much better at the sympathetic stuff than he was. They asked the woman if her son had seen or heard anything weird before he fell ill, or if he was acting strangely. She said that her son was fine before he started getting tired. He wasn't acting strangely, and he didn't have any problems that she knew of. Then when Dean asked if they could look at his room, she gave him the eye, as if she were going to say no. She said yes, though, as long as they put back everything the way they found it.

The room looked like a normal teenage boy's room, except there weren't any clothes on the floor, and the bed was made. His mom probably came in and cleaned up since his passing, a few days ago. They searched through a lot of things and came up empty. Then Dean found a notebook full of drawings of... well, he wasn't sure what they were suppose to be, but they looked like monsters. They weren't rendered with any real artistic talent. Most of the drawings were scribbled with black pen.

"Hey, I think I got something," Dean called to Mia, who was checking the boy's closet.

"Yeah, me too," she said, as she lifted up a laptop to show Dean.

Mia came over to sit at the little desk he had just been searching, and opened up the laptop. She then took out a codebreaker from her jacket pocket, and plugged it up to the computer. After the codebreaker machine was set to do its thing she finally put her hand out to take the notebook Dean had discovered.

When she was done looking at the notebook, she said, "Well, its either this kid was disturbed, or he had been seeing something evil for a long time. This thing is full of wicked looking creatures."

"Yeah, I think he definitely saw something," Dean said, as the computer blinged, as it got through to the main screen, "but these things don't look like anything I can really recognize."

"Well, let's see what's on the computer, shall we?"

Mia looked up search histories on the internet, and tried to see if anything in his computer files stuck out as strange. There was a lot of picture art, some of it was painted copies of some of the creatures in his notebook. The art on the computer was better rendered. He wrote song lyrics too. He had videos of himself playing a guitar and singing his new songs. Dean was really impressed, the kid could have given a lot of his favorite rock stars a run for their money. The last video he had recorded was dated for a few days before they took him, and the other ADHD patients off their meds. He had dark circles under his eyes, and had to stifle a few yawns before beginning. The song was "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. He put his own twist on it, and put a deathmetal sounding verse in the middle. When he was done with the song, he sat in his chair for a second to catch his breath. He approached the camera and said, "Beware the sandman," before cutting off the feed. A shudder went up Dean's spine, because in the last bit of the video, he looked so haunted, as if he knew he was going to die.

The search history didn't turn up much that was unusual, except for the fact that Dean had a hunch that this case could be blamed on the dark fae the kid drew. There were a few websites where he looked up faery folklore. His favorites had a website on it called Elfwood, where he was a very popular dark faery artist. There was also a place where he posted stories up on the Internet, and of course the subject matter was unseelie fey. Mia clicked on one of his shortest stories, and skimmed it.

"Man, this shit is pretty graphic," she commented, "there's parts in here where he describes the faery ripping each other apart. The summary on one of these stories has a warning of kinky male on male sex."

"So he's gay?"

"Well, let's see," Mia said as she hacked into his social networking page. On the profile page, the question of sexuality said bi. His pictures showed him with an ex-girlfriend, a pretty little blond wearing black nailpolish in almost every picture. She was beautiful, and the boy had been not too bad looking, himself, despite the cheek acne. She was still a friend on his page, so Mia figured that things hadn't ended terribly between the two. She had a suspicion that the boy was probably still in love with her when he had died.

"He was a pretty popular guy, I guess. The jocks picked on him a little bit, but hey, he was the cool man in the school when it came to the 'outcast' crowd."

"Shame. Kid had a lot of potential, especially with his music," Dean replied sadly.

When Mia and Dean came down the steps the mother was sitting in the dining room, drinking a cup of tea, and glaring at them. Dean had a newfound sympathy for the woman, despite her not too nice glares that she was constantly throwing in his direction. Obviously Todd was a kid that everyone loved and gravitated towards. When he looked at some of the pictures that were decorating the mantles and walls, he could see the love between Todd and his parents. It looked as if Todd had been best friends with his mother, because some of the pictures were of the son putting bunny ears behind her head.

The mother was asking if they had put everything back the way they had found it, and Mia was assuring her that they had. Before they left, Dean turned to Mrs. Vertilli, wanting to express his condolences. He usually expressed his condolences, as it was often part of the job, but he rarely felt like he meant it. It was just words, normally. This time, though, he really wanted to express how sorry he was to hear about this kid's death.

"Mrs. Vertilli, I really truly am sorry that you lost your son. We saw some of his videos on his laptop, and he was _very_ talented. The world is a darker place now that he's gone, and I'm not just saying that because its what you say when some one dies."

"Thank you," Mrs. Vertilli told him, as two tears made their way down her face.

"Mrs. Vertilli, in case you want it, the password to his computer is 'icky vicky', and if you'll let me, I'd like to borrow a book of his drawings. I can't tell you why, but I have a hunch that this is a clue to stop this sickness from spreading."

"Alright," the woman agreed, looking a little confused.

"Can I ask you another question?"

"Yeah, sure," she said, pulling a tissue from a pocket, trying to subtly wipe her face.

"Did your son have nightmares, or anything before the symptoms showed?"

"No, he hasn't really had terrible nightmares since he was a little boy, boogie man fears, you know."

"Did Todd have an imaginary friend when he was little?"

"Yeah, but that's normal for only children."

"When did he grow out of the imaginary friend stage?"

"When he was, oh, I dunno... Six, or seven maybe? His father scared him out of it. It was kind of strange actually, how my husband over-reacted to it all. I think I over heard him talking to his invisible friend once, after he had promised his father that he was going to get rid of him. When I asked him, he said that he had just been thinking out loud."

"Any discipline problems when he was small?"

"Well, he did color on the walls on occasion. Todd was a real artist, even back then. Things would go missing, and we'd find it in his room, sometimes. Oh, and he would always lie to us about it afterwards. Why are you so interested in his childhood?"

"I'll tell you, if anything comes of it," Dean replied, before they excused themselves and left. They had left a business card with Mrs. Vertilli, telling her to have her husband call them when he got home.

"So, what exactly are you thinking happened here," Mia asked as they were getting into the car.

As Dean started up the Impala, he explained his thinking to Mia, "I'm not exactly sure. According to past research I've done, people can sometimes make a deal with fae for riches, or whatever and the price is your first born. I think its kind of obvious that this is going to be about fae. I think the father knows something about it, because he over reacted when his son was talking to faeries. What I don't understand is why they didn't just take Todd, and I'm still not entirely sure why this "sandman," if that's what it is, is here."

"Do you think its possible to take your child back from faeryland?"

"The only way I know how to get there is if they pick you up. I have never heard of anyone returning, but its certainly possible."

"So maybe the fae sent in a monster because Daddy dearest got his son back and has been protecting him ever since. I doubt that they care if the thing goes on a rampage after eliminating the target."

"Yeah, well too bad I didn't think to ask if Todd had disappeared for a little while when he was little. Its a good theory to go with. But if the Sandman is from faery world, wouldn't that make him fay?"

"I suppose so," Mia said, "We should be careful with this one. I've never heard of the sandman but I once knew an old Irishman who liked to tell scary stories of what monsters the rulers of the courts liked to keep hidden away."

"Great, sounds like a walk in the park," Dean said sarcastically.

Dean, and Mia went to a Cafe they had told Shawn to meet them at for lunch. They got a table outside, and they waved at Shawn as he walked his rented bike across the street. He chained the bike up to a sign post before seating himself at their table.

"So, what did you find out," Shawn asked as he picked up a spare menu.

Mia and Dean told Shawn what they had found, and their theories. Shawn was suppose to look into the other families while they went to the Vertilli household. He only had one thing to report that every victim had in common. At every house a small purple flower grew in clumps around the yards, and sometimes even in the cracks of the sidewalks. He had looked up the flower, and it was a poisonous weed that wasn't native to Missouri, or even America, for that matter.

"So, is everybody being poisoned, you think," Dean asked.

"No I don't think so. The flower is called dream walk, but if you ingest it, its an agonizing death. You don't just sleep untill your dead. I think there is something supernatural affecting these people. It just seems that where ever this thing goes, this weed pops up in its wake."

Dean puffed out a frustrated sigh, and admitted, "maybe we should call Sam to get an expert out here. I'm stumped, and Cassie is running out of time."

"We can at least wait till after lunch. If Mr. Vertilli doesn't call soon, we'll call Sam."

"Fine," Dean agreed, not liking the idea of waiting, when a friend's life was on the line.

Dean picked at his food, mostly just munching on the French fries that came with his barbecue pork sandwich. Shawn had resisted the urge to try and negotiate with Dean over his food choices, like he was in the habit of doing, lately. He knew that Dean wasn't in the mood. When Shawn was almost done with his meal he noticed that Dean had only taken two bites out of his sandwich. He was worried that Dean was going to run himself ragged if he didn't eat. So he tried coaxing his boyfriend, but it didn't help. Instead, Dean's temper got the best of him as he snapped at Shawn.

"Damn it Shawn! I don't need you coddling me! Just back off!"

He regretted the words as soon as he said them. He closed his eyes and put his head in his hand. As soon as his anger had dissipated, he apologized, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to chew you out. I'm just really stressed."

"Don't worry about it. I get it."

Dean grabbed Shawn's hand to give it a little squeeze, then called the waitress over for the check. As soon as they reached their rooms, Mia's phone rang. It was Mr. Vertilli. He had just gotten home from work, and gotten the message from his wife that the police wanted to speak with him. He was very confused as to why the police were running an investigation on his son's death when there was no foul play. Mia set up a meeting with him at a park that was nearly halfway between the motel and the Vertilli house.

Once they arrived at the park, Dean said that he was going to take the lead on questioning. Shawn was along for the ride this time. Mia didn't like the look that Dean had on his face, but he was the senior hunter in their group, and just because he lost his cool sometimes didn't mean he didn't have good instincts, so she followed his lead anyway. When they spotted Mr. Vertilli on a park bench, Dean introduced himself, Mia, and Shawn using their real names.

"I don't understand," the man said, looking concerned and confused, "where is officer Savage, and Rosenberg?"

"Fictional characters," Dean responded.

"I don't get the joke, and I don't appreciate you guys yanking my chain."

"No joke. We're hunters. You made a deal with the fey, and the price was your first born son. Except somehow you found a way to get your kid back. And now people are dying because you pissed them off! We are here to clean up your mess," Dean said coming close to yelling, waving his hand around to include himself, Mia and Shawn, "What was it? What did you think was worth your sons life?"

Mr. Vertilli grew alarmingly pale, as Dean reached the end of his tirade. Mia grabbed Dean's arm just as he opened his mouth, to start yelling again, no doubt. The man had lost his son, and he honestly thought that he had somehow cheated the system. He deserved time to collect his thoughts. Mr. Vertilli was staring down at the grass.

After a brief pause to wipe some tears from his eyes, he said, "It wasn't me. It was my grandfather. He lived recklessly. He lived with three rules: when your thirsty drink, when you see a girl you want take her, and when you bet on horses go for the long-shot. Over the years his vices got worse and worse. He spent so much money on booze, hookers, and horses that he forgot to pay his mortgage payments. Him and his family were about to be kicked out onto the streets, and so he promised the fay his oldest son for a house. My grandmother killed her own child rather than give him away.

"The damn thing told her that it was okay, because her daughter, my mother, would inherit the dept. When my brother was born, he had a heart defect that killed him. So, I inherited the dept. Olivia and I had trouble getting pregnant, and when she finally got pregnant with Todd, we were so happy. When she gave birth, she almost died, because of a heart murmur she didn't know she had. The doctors had to deliver my son by c-section, and there was a lot of bleeding so they gave her a hysterectomy in order to save her life. Todd's the only kid we could have. He was stolen from us when he was three. I got him back though, and I kept him protected. I thought I had gotten away with it, cheating the fey, but apparently not. They sent something to kill him, didn't they? And now whatever it is, started killing all those other people, right?"

Dean sat down on the bench then, with a big thump, and a sigh. His temper had gotten the best of him twice in one day. He was wrong about Mr. Vertilli. He had just tried to look after his little family, and had paid with his son's life. It wasn't his fault, and he felt bad for treating him so harshly.

"I'm sorry Mr. Vertilli-"

"Call me Tom," he interrupted.

"I'm sorry Tom. I made an assumption. You were just trying to protect your son. I would have done the same thing in your shoes. In fact I made a deal with something supernatural once, for my brother. It had some terrible consequences."

"Do you have any idea what this thing is," Mia asked.

"Before my son slipped into a coma, he told me that the sandman got him. I doubt that will help you much, but that's all I know. I didn't see the thing. I did get a glimps of the little fucker they sent to watch my son though, but I doubt that's what Todd was talking about."

"Okay, well, you can go back home to your wife, now, Tom. If you think of anything that might be important, you have our numbers."

They went back to the hotel room to do research on sandman legends. Most websites said that the sandman legends were just faery tales to make children feel more comfortable with going to sleep. Some legends said that he was a kind hearted elf, and others a man. Obviously that wasn't the sandman that was killing everybody. A more wicked version of the fairy tale said that the sandman was a monster that took the eyes of naughty children to feed its young who lived on the moon. Well, as far as they knew it wasn't stealing eyes. The sleep spell was suppose to be instantaneous too. Todd had been so sure though. Maybe the police didn't want the missing eyes to be in the papers so they had kept it quiet. Well, maybe it was about time Shawn take a trip with him down to the morgue. He just hoped his boyfriend wouldn't hurl on the bodies.

Dean hacked into the security feed at the hospital in order to do some pre-mission surveillance. He found that the hospital morgue was guarded. 'Yeah, not suspicious at all' Dean thought sarcastically. He decided that Shawn would have to sneak him in as a dead patient.

At the hospital, Dean told Shawn that he was going to put his acting skills to the test. They snuck into the hospital laundry and found a hospital orderly uniform, and a patient gown. Dean put on the gown while Shawn put on the uniform, snickering at the way his boyfriend's boxers showed through the open back. Dean hopped onto a gurney in an unoccupied room. Before he pulled the sheet over his face to play dead, he had to give Shawn some instructions.

"Okay, your going to head back to the elevator, and down to the third floor. Follow the signs untill you reach the morgue. You have to stay calm and relaxed. The best way not to get caught is to act as if you belong here. Your going to drop me off just before the doc closes for the night. Tell the doc there that I am not to be looked at, just stored there untill the police department comes to pick up my body. He'll head off home and just leave me on this bed for now. If you get a little nervous when you talk, just say that its your first day, you didn't expect to have to be around dead bodies, and dead people make you nervous. Got it?"

Shawn nodded in response, obviously nervous of his role in the whole thing. On the last few cases, Shawn had done all his work amazingly well, including being the vessel of the first reaper. He didn't have much oppurtunity to act or lie though, he did research most of the time. Lieing needed to become second nature to him if he was going to be of any use in this job.

"The fake ID's are perfect," Dean assured him, "you have nothing to worry about. Besides, its not like your going to be the one checking out the dead corpses, so you can calm down now."

Dean lay back, pulling the sheet over his face, and adjusted his breathing so that his chest barely moved. Shawn did amazingly well. He talked to the guard, and the doctor in charge of the morgue, with complete confidence. When he was left alone with only the dead to keep him company, he came out from hiding, and put on some pants against the chill of the room. He looked into a few drawers, careful not to make too much noise. When he found his first sandman victim, he pulled out a little flashlight, put on some gloves, and looked at the man's eyes. The eyes were still there. Dean sighed, worried, that they had the wrong creature, and at the same time a little relieved that he hadn't found empty sockets which would have been totally gross.

"Wait a second," Dean whispered to himself, as he leaned in to take a closer look at the eye. Usually a dead person's eyes were dilated, these were not. So, Dean did the only thing he could think of, he lightly poked the eye. The eye shifted sideways, and it didn't feel like an eye. It felt like something solid. He poked it again, just to be sure that it was solid, then popped the glass eye out of place. He went into the filing cabinet to find information on the guy. There was no mention of a false eye in his paperwork.

Going back to the corpse, he poked at the other eye. It was fake too. He put the false eyes back into place, and carefully closed the drawer. He found another sandman victim, and found false eyes in that one too. That was enough searching. Dean pulled out his cell phone, and texted Mia with a quick "done," and hopped back onto his gurney, and put the sheet over his head.

Mia came into the room, with the guard, a few minutes later, and took the gurney away, and he was able to change back into the rest of his clothes in the elevator. They left the gurney out in a hallway on the main floor, and left. Shawn was already outside, leaning on the car. A relieved sigh fell from his lips as he saw the duo approach.

"So, is it the sandman," Mia asked on the way back to the motel.

"The victims have glass eyeballs. I don't know why it would even bother to replace the eyes."

"Are you sure its not somehow turning the eyes into glass," Shawn asked.

"I don't know, but at least I'm pretty certain it can be this sandman thing. Now we need to do some research on how to kill it. I think I should call Sam now. Bobby left behind a shitload of old tomes, maybe this thing will be in one of those books."

That night, the three of them hit the books, trying to figure out how to destroy a sandman. They had plenty of information on fey thanks to a few of Sam's friends and a photocopier. It was getting late, well past midnight, and they still hadn't found anything. Shawn was squinting tiredly at the computer screen.

"Dean, let's go to bed, we can pick this back up in a couple of hours."

"Can't. Why don't you head on to bed. I'll keep looking."

Shawn sighed, "I don't want you to run yourself ragged over this. Your friend still has a few days left for us to figure this stuff out."

"Okay," Dean said, trying to keep himself from snapping at his concerned boyfriend, again, "how about you go to sleep, and I'll join you in a little bit."

"How long is a little bit," Shawn asked as he pulled out his sleep pants.

"An hour?"

Shawn tried to stay awake, so that he would be able to tell Dean when to come to bed, but within a half hour, he dozed off. When he woke in the morning, the space next to him was still empty. He didn't remember his boyfriend ever coming to bed last night. He rolled over and sat up to find Dean sitting in the same chair he had been in last night. A book lay open before him, but instead of reading it, Dean was fast asleep on its pages.

Walking up behind the sleeping hunter, he gently ran his fingers through the soft hairs on the crown of his head. Normally Dean was a pretty light sleeper when they were on a hunt, so Shawn found it strange when he didn't wake up right away. He groaned a complaint for being disturbed, and then fell back asleep.

"Hey sleepy head, its morning."

"Go... Away," Dean grunts, removing his head from the page, and banging it down on the table.

"I'll go get you some coffee," Shawn says, before heading out to the front office.

When Shawn gets back from the office, where he chatted with Mia about Dean, he hears the water running in the shower. He approaches the door to inform Dean that he's back, and hears a groan from inside. He decides against knocking, and sits at their little table, sipping at his hot tea.

When Dean leaves the bathroom in a towel, he can't even look his boyfriend in the eye. From the bemused smile that is gracing the other brunette's lips, he knows that they're both aware of the methods he used to wake himself up. He grabs some clothes from his duffel, reaches over Shawn to grab his coffe, and dissapears back into the bathroom.

"What time did you go to bed," Shawn asked, as his boyfriend exited the bathroom once more.

"I dunno. I was skimming the pages, and then I was dreaming about books chasing me. I have no recollection of ever falling asleep."

Shawn gave off a small chuckle at Dean's dream, before asking his next question, "Did you find anything?"

Dean gave off a tired sigh as he answered, "No, there's only brief mentions of what King Oberon, and Queen Mab keep in their dungeons. The Sandman is mentioned, but there's nothing about what will kill him."

"What about iron? that seems to work against the fey."

"The _fey_ are even afraid of these things, I doubt it'll be so easy. We can't go on a hunch with no information. It could end up getting us killed."

Shawn sighed as Dean pulled the book he had been reading last night, closer to his side of the table. Mia went out to get donuts, and as they ate, they cracked open books, once more. Around noon, Dean got a phone call from his brother.

"I haven't found anything of use," Sam confessed, after his brother answered the phone.

"Me neither, well nothing that will tell us how to kill this thing, anyway. Don't you have any friends that you can talk to?"

"Already talked to Cecile, she says that none of that stuff is common knowledge. She wasn't of any help, and she told me that more than likely we would have to wait untill the fey deciede to call it back."

"That's not an option," Dean growled into his end of the phone.

"I know that. I called Mike in California next, and he said that he would ask his older brother. So I'm waiting on him to call me back. I only just got off the phone with him, so it may be a little while."

"Call me when you hear from him, Sammy. I'm going over to the hospital, to visit with Cassie."

"Will do. Take care of yourself, jerk."

"Fine, I'll talk to you later, bitch."

When Sam called nearly two hours later, Dean was frantic with worry. Cassie was way worse today than she was yesterday. She asked Dean how the hunt was going, but other than that she stayed really quiet, dozing in and out of consciousness, every few minutes. Nurses kept coming in to check on her every ten minutes, poking her in the feet if she wasn't conscious when they arrived. Sometimes they would ask her questions. She'd always answered with a heavy sigh, and one worded answers if she could. A small shrug with her one shoulder became her favorite way to communicate.

Dean answered his phone on the first ring, begging, "Please tell me you got something."

Sam's mouth pulled down in a concerned frown as he answered, "Mike said that his brother knows how to defeat the sandman, but he won't talk to him about it. We'll have to go over and visit him, and get the answers ourselves."

After getting an address to some psychiatric hospital near San Francisco, Dean went with Mia to go meet up with the Murphy brothers. Shawn was left behind so that he could call Dean if Cassie's condition changed. Even though Dean had voluntarily told Shawn that he loved him, just yesterday, he couldn't help but be slightly jealous of the attention and concern he was paying towards his ex. When they said their good-byes, Dean gave him a manly thump on the back, and a squeeze of the shoulder. He understood that Dean didn't usually indulge in public displays, and he liked to stay focused when he was on a case, but at that moment, he couldn't help but feel like he was Dean's dirty little secret. He didn't say anything though, as he watched his boyfriend walk out the door.

0-0-0-0

On their way out of town, they saw it, or at least Dean did. They were on a street that had dozens of trees all along it. It was pretty shady under the tree branches, but there was no doubt of what the creature was. The thing wore a dark hood made of sand. All that could be seen of its face was a fanged smile, and milky white eyes, that seemed to glow in the shadows.

When Dean slammed down on the breaks, Mia looked over at him, and then squinted ahead, searching the streets before them. She couldn't see it, but when it spoke, she could hear it. Chills ran up and down her spine, as she heard its dry, raspy voice coming from somewhere in front of the car.

"You will not escape, Dean."

"Run, Mia," Dean yelled at his partner. When she was out of the car and running down the road, Dean gunned the car into motion, intending to run the thing over. He suspected that being run down with a car could at least injure it, or distract it long enough for Mia to get some distance away from it. Once it was on the ground, he planned on shooting it with the shotgun that lay in the back seat.

The sandman just smirked at Dean through the windshield as the Impala came barreling down on him. Just before impact, the sand formed itself into a protective barrier between the car and the creature it served. It was like hitting a solid wall. There was sand all over his wrecked hood, and the windshield. When the sand receded, Dean saw that the creature was still there, and unscathed.

Another wicked grin spread over the monster's face. He had short, dark, and unruly red hair. His eyes were fogged over in white, as if he was blind, but you could tell that they were once a pale green. There were dark circles around his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in centuries. He looked real young, as if he were still in his late teens.

Dean looked at it in shocked silence, as he sat in the driver's seat. _Shit! What now?_ Dean opened his door, getting ready to run, but he didn't make it very far. He took two steps, and then he was knocked on his ass, or rather, his face. Something grabbed him around his ankles, and pulled him off his feet. He barely had time to throw his hands up, before he fell forward onto the hard cement.

The thing leaned over him and licked his cheeks.

"Ugh, gross! Back off dude, I'm already taken."

A deep chuckle came from the thing's throat, before it spoke, "Don't worry, I won't use you in that way. The only use I have for you is food to feed my children. It's been so long since the queen sent me to do her bidding. I've rather enjoyed myself, and you're not going to ruin it."

The creature stood up once more, and flipped Dean over onto his back, saying, "Take one last look at the world around you, by this time tomorrow, your eyes are going to be in my children's stomachs."

The Sandman brought his palm up to his mouth, and blew. As soon as the fine grains settled on his face, and went into his lungs and eyes, he started sinking into unconsciousness. The last words he heard was, "Maybe I'll give your heart to my queen. The heart of a man who once loved an angel would be worth a lot on the black market."

0-0-0-0

Mia ran a few miles until she found someone to hitch a ride from. She called Sam once she sat in the passenger side to tell him what had happened, and then she called for a paramedics to pick up Dean. She didn't dare go back. She had a feeling that their monster didn't just have it in for Dean. It probably would jump at a chance to attack her too, because they were both trying to kill it.

After the run in with the thing, she realized that she was at a terrible disadvantage, since she couldn't fucking see it! She didn't feel safe until she saw the front doors of the hospital. Even then she worried about whether the thing would chase her here. They had no weapons either, no car, and their clothes were left at their motel, which lay well within the sandman zone. Her and Shawn were sitting ducks.

0-0-0-0

Once Sam had received Mia's phone call about Dean being attacked, he got off the highway, and quickly changed directions. He needed to check on Dean himself. He knew that it was impractical, and that he should be heading straight to California to meet up with Mike's brother, but he just had to.

Sam used a civilian ID at the front desk, and headed towards the hospital elevators, trying to keep his hurried pace from breaking down into a panicked sprint. He smiled politely at the people who were stuck in the elevator with him, and resisted the urge to tap his foot, while his inner Sam was screaming his impatience. Dean was up on the fifth floor, and there were two stops in between. When the doors finally opened on the right floor, he can't help but dash out in his hurry to see his brother. His nerves had frazzled into nothing on the way up.

Once he was in his brother's hospital room he couldn't help the small sigh of relief that escaped him. Seeing that his brother was still alive, and now comatose due to his own stupidity, and inability to look after himself, Sam started to feel a little irritated. He tried not to take it out on Mia, or Shawn, but it was rather hard.

Mia had been reading a book on fey protection when Sam darkened the doorway. She looked up from her reading and watched the emotions flicker across his face. She saw him relax from his anxious worry into relief, then she watched him stiffen up into anger, and irritation, before he struggled to calm himself.

"I'm sorry, Sam."

She knew that Sam expected her to watch over his brother. She had been doing her best but her inability to see the monster had kept her from doing the job. This was hardly her fault, but she suspected that Sam would still be feeling some irrational anger towards her anyway. She apologized quickly before he lost his cool.

Sam sighed again, this time to let his temper to cool a bit more, and then spoke to Mia while his eyes remained shut, "This isn't your fault. Even if I had been there, this still might have happened. I can't see the fey either. Heck, I probably would have been in the bed right beside him, not having the good sense to get away."

"We can still fix this, right," Shawn asked. He was sitting by Dean's bedside, holding his hand. He knew that the job was dangerous, of course, but this was the first time he had seen Dean like this. Dean could actually die, the doctors had run an EEG, to measure his brain waves. A sympathetic nurse had told him that his scans had shown Dean had a little less than twenty-four hours left.

"Yeah, we're going to fix this. You want to come with me to meet with the Murphys, Mia?"

Mia looked a bit nervous as she said, "It knows what I look like, and I don't think it will hesitate to end me."

"Well, they built a secondary road out of town since the last time Dean and I have been here. We won't even have to go into the affected zone."

0-0-0-0

Mia handed the books she was looking at over to Shawn, and he was starting to etch symbols in the windows, doors, and underneath the bed as the two of them left. When Sam and Mia arrived at the address they were given, Michael Murphy greeted them in the rec room just past the second floor nurses' station, and brought them to his brother's room. A man sat in a corner of the room, watching them as they entered. He had Mike's same dark hair and eyes, but he was greying at the temples and he had a different nose. Mike had explained the rules to them before they had even arrived: Wait for Matt to speak first, don't make sudden movements towards him, and leave if he seems hostile.

"That's them," Matt asked.

"Yeah," Mike answered with a relieved smile, "Are you okay with talking about this stuff?"

"I'm far from okay, but I have to help them because I'm the only one who can."

Matt sat forward in his chair, but not as if he was ready to engage someone in interesting conversation, but as if he was sitting on the edge of a seat while watching a scary movie. His fingers were gripping the armrests of the chair so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. He looked like he was ready to run. He stared at the floor for a long minute, and then looked up at Sam.

"The Sandman-" Matt began, but then fell silent. Just the uttering of the monster's name made him fall silent again. He sat in his chair, gripping the arm rests even harder, if that were possible, worrying his fingers into the wood. A small pathetic whimper escaped him.

"They can't hear you through the charms, remember? What do you need me to do Matt," Mike asked.

His older brother didn't answer, but after a few more seconds, he stopped shaking, and got up from his chair. He shuffled his slippered feet across the room, and stopped before Mike. He hesitated, as if he were unsure, and rubbed his thumb across his fingers in a nervous habit.

"Its okay, whatever you need," Mike reminded him.

Matt looked at Mia and Sam as if he feared they would judge him harshly for what he was about to do, before he grabbed Mike by the lapels of his top shirt, and hid his face in his brother's chest. Sam was only slightly surprised by the odd behavior. Matt was a mental patient, and Mike had warned them that sometimes his brother acted a little child-like. If Mia was surprised, she didn't show it.

"Sorry, he just needs a minute," Mike whispered to their guests, while he carefully rapped his arms around his brother.

When Matt was able to pull away, his left hand still held tight to his brother's clothes. He looked up into Sam's eyes as he began to speak.

"I was stolen away as a kid by the unseelie fay. Do you know the differences between the Seelie, and unseelie fey?"

"Not really," Sam responded.

"The unseelie are more wicked. All fey are evil by human standards but its especially difficult to survive in the winter courts. They will throw their own into a blood thirsty mob to be ripped apart. The unseelie have a strong taste for torture."

Matt slipped off his shoes then and ordered Sam to close the door before unbuttoning his shirt, and rolling up his sleeves. All of his lesser toes had been cut off at the first joint, except for the pinky toe. There were scars all over his body. Some of them were obvious clawmarks, there were a few bites, others could have been knife marks, and other scars were caused by unknown things. It was a ghastly sight, but all three witnesses tried not to react. It was especially hard on Mike.

"The never never is more difficult than hell, because your still alive," Matt said as he rubbed the back of his hand against his eye, to catch a tear, "and you know that there are ways out. You live every day with the hope of escape, or at least with the hope of being sold to a better master. I was never so lucky. I was sold to Queen Mab herself, and it can't get any worse than that. She has a quick temper`and she gets bored of her playthings easily. She's more likely to draw and quarter you than resell you when she does get bored. Unfortunately for me, my main job title was dungeon master. I feed the things that even the fey are afraid to go near, which is why I'm the only living expert on creatures like The Sandman."

Matt whispered the monster's name as if he didn't want to be overheard. He turned back to his brother, for the first time since separating himself from their embrace earlier, and asked the man to step out. His brother hesitated, but only for a minute. They had all their arguments about this already, and Mike knew that his stubborn brother wouldn't change his mind. Mike was not to know about this stuff. In fact, Mike was suppose to stay away from anything even remotely fay related. He hadn't told Matt about the Sealie he had sent packing.

Once Mike stepped beyond the doorway, he couldn't hear any of the conversation going on inside. He insisted that the door stay open though. Matt buttoned up his shirt, pulled down his sleeves, and put his mangled feet back into his slippers, before shuffling off to sit down on his bed. The two hunters followed his lead and sat down for this conversation.

"I don't know exactly how the original Sandman was created. All I know is that he was born human. When he was born, though there was something different about him, something wrong. Some stories say that he was half fay, others that he was born blood thirsty and had drank fay blood which made him even more twisted than he was, but others say that he was cursed or possessed at birth. I don't care to speculate. I tell you one thing, even though he is part fay now, I know that he is part human also.

"He has a biological son who lives in Oberon's dungeon, King of the Seelie fay. Only the original sandman, and his son can make others like themselves. The father turns blind humans into his children. He gives the blind kid his blood for years. He only has two feeder children at a time. The fay are constantly on the look out for unguarded blind kids to take to him. After they reach full maturity he kills them, and if he has three candidates he kills one. Can never tell which one it'll be.

"If he is sent to this realm he can finish transforming his children into monsters by feeding them the eyeballs of his victims. He is allergic to iron, like all other fay, but it won't kill him, only weaken him. You'll have to use both of his weaknesses against him.

"Now, the information, I give you for so far is for free, but you'll need my help in order to save your brother. I have a proposition for you two, a bargain, if you will…"

Matt waited for them to ask what the bargain was. The hunters looked at him with suspicion, as he expected they would. Matt had lived ten years in the never never, and in all that time he had learned to never let an opportunity pass by. Knowing that Sam was in charge of this particular duo, he never took his eyes off the man.

Noticing the change in Mathew Murphy, Sam was now wary of the guy. This was no longer the man who stuttered, and fidgeted, shuffling over to his little brother to seek comfort in the other man's embrace. This other guy who sat before him, had a shrewd, piercing gaze. This new Mathew Murphy looked at him as a predator would look at dinner, waiting to pounce.

"Who are you?"

"I am the other Mathew. You see Mattie wouldn't have been able to survive the never never on his own. He was weak and scared. He cowered, he stuttered, and he broke things. He earned us many whippings, and after a few torture sessions he began to crack. I lived ten years in Tir Na Nog. Ten Years! I was created out of Mattie's mind so that we could survive. Not many humans can survive into adulthood, especially not as a servant of the queen. I was cruel, and vicious when I needed to be, all for him. I protected him when I could, and taught him how to survive when I couldn't be there. He was too afraid to make that bid to freedom, but I took the chance for both of us. If it weren't for me, we would have been dead in the never never, or worse, frozen in the thrown room for all eternity."

"Multiple personality," Sam whispered, a little awed by the revelation.

"Yep. The doctors think its bipolar disorder. Multiple Personality disorder isn't a diagnosis recognized by the APA. Either way its kind of hard to diagnose me. I don't want to be taking all those pills they shove down most patient's throats, so I take charge during therapy sessions and clam up. Nothing is for free in the never never, not even information. The only reason I gave you the information is because you can't do anything with it, not without my help. I know that you can't see through normal faery glamour because you have never been taken. And I have someone who will volunteer to be the bait to lure The Sandman in, and help you with the hunt too. So, its either you agree to my terms, or your brother will die."

"What are your terms?"

"I want The Sandman alive. I want you to capture him rather than kill him, and bring him to me."

"What? He's a monster! He's going to die so we can save these people that he's attacked, and that's all that there is to it. Your just going to get burned, playing with fire."

"I know what I'm doing," Mathew said with a smile.

"Okay, well what do you plan on doing with him once we hand him over?"

"That is none of your business," Mathew hissed.

"Well, I'm not just going to hand him over and hope you don't let him loose on innocent people. I can always decide to take my chances, and find someone else to help."

"I wasn't aware that your brother had that much time. Then by all means, go find some poor dumb shmuck to finish this hunt for you," Mathew said, leaning back and acting as if he didn't care either way."

"My brother and I have an understanding. We don't work for evil bastards, and we don't make deals that may have unknown consequences, not even if its to save each others lives. So, its either you tell me what you plan on doing with the sandman, or no deal."

Mathew hissed, as if he were a scolded cat, and glared at Sam as he told him, "Fine, if you must know… I made a promise. And if you make a promise in the faery realm, the glamour in the air will bind you to that promise. I promised one of Mab's servants that I would one day save her. Once I made it to this realm, I meet with an oracle and she foretold of the opportunity to get my hands on the sandman. This is the only chance I have to save her. If you capture me The Sandman, I can trade him back to Mab in exchange for the freedom of all the human servants in her castle. Once he goes back home, everyone affected by the sleeping sickness will begin to get better. Eventually the two children will come out of hiding, so that they can find their own food source, and you can kill them then while their vulnerable."

"If we give the thing back to Mab, won't she just send it back to slaughter more people?"

"No, that will be one of the conditions to the trade contract."

"What would happen to that promise of yours if I didn't agree to the bargain?"

"I would die. So, you see, you would be saving more lives this way."

Sam thought about the proposition. Of course he didn't like it. Faeries were a particularly difficult group to work with. Most of the time, they had to send them back to the never never rather than gank them. Most of them were too powerful, anyway. Anybody who ever tried to play them at their own game got burned. That's why they were in this particular sticky mess in the first place. The fey had sent The Sandman to get revenge for a slight against them. Mathew was right though, if he didn't take the deal, Cassie, and Dean would die. Even though he had promised Dean that if the choices were between the greater good and family, he would choose the greater good, he knew that if the roles were reversed, Dean would break the promise. Why should he be the one to make the sacrifice?

"Alright, you have a deal then."

"Then you won't mind signing a contract," Mathew asked.

With a huge sigh, Sam agreed. He shouldn't have been surprised when he was asked to sign the paper in blood, but he kind of was. It was like dealing with a crossroad demon. He listened to Mathew's explanations, and did a quick read-through of the contract before signing it. There was an added clause that if Dean died from he effects of the Sandman's spell, Mathew would die too. As Sam and then Mia shook hands with the man, they were handed a pair of sunglasses each, a number to Mr. Murphy's friend, and heavy wrought iron cuffs.

"What are these," Mia asked as she lifted up the glasses.

"Put them on and see," Matt responded.

Once the glasses were on, Mia realized that they weren't tinted. She looked around the room, and saw all the faery wardings everywhere. There was also an old traveling trunk tucked into the corner that was invisible to the naked eye.

"With those glasses, you'll be able to see him."

0-0-0-0

Before they were able to leave, the two hunters had to agree that they were not going to tell his brother about his other personality, or about anything they had discussed. Sam was surprised when Mike didn't mention seeing him sign a contract in blood, but didn't discuss with the younger Murphy, since it would be against Matt's verbal contract. When they left the hospital, they went to the address that Mathew had written down.

The house they pulled up to was white with peach trim. The front of the garage was built with rock. There was a young palm tree in the front yard, and flowering plants on both sides of the front walk. Sam lead the way through onto the screened in porch, and rang the doorbell. It didn't take long for the door to be answered by a tall blond woman in a long blue floral skirt, and an elegant sleeveless white blouse. When she greeted them, she stared at Sam's left shoulder.

"Sam and Amelia, I presume…"

"Yes, I suppose Mathew told you we were coming," Sam responded, as he took her offered hand for a shake.

"Yes, Mattie told me that you were coming. My name is Ariella. I know he probably didn't give you a name with that address. Unfortunately Mathew still acts as if he is still trapped in the faery realm, which means he gives out information on a strict need to know basis."

Once Sam let her hand go, she offered it to Amelia. Once greetings were exchanged, Ariella moved to the side, and held the door open in order to allow her guests to enter. Once the door closed behind them, she told to make themselves comfortable in the living room.

"Would you like anything to drink, or eat? I have coffee, tea, Pepsi, cherry Coke, lemonade, and of course, water. I was thinking about putting the kettle on before you arrived."

Sam was beginning to say that he was fine without refreshment when his stomach betrayed him by grumbling loud enough for all to hear. They had hightailed it out of Missouri to make it to the meeting with the Murphy brothers, and they hadn't eaten anything but potato chips during the entire ride. "Don't let the blindness fool you, Mr. Winchester, I'm quite capable of making a sandwich without any trouble. Is ham and swiss alright?"

"Ham and swiss sounds great," he responded, with a hint of embarrassment in his voice.

"I would love a cup of coffee, if its not an inconvenience," Mia added.

"I'll put a pot on."

"She's rather nice," Sam whispered when he could hear their host opening cabinets in the kitchen, "wonder how she knows Matthew."

"Maybe you shouldn't be jumping to conclusions on first impressions, but yeah, she seems nice."

Just then a boy came into the room, and stared at them for a minute. Then he stepped into the room, and said, "you must be crazy Matt's hunter friends."

"I guess so," Mia answered, hesitantly, "I'm Mia, and this is Sam. Who might you be?"

"My name is Draven. I live here with Aunt Ari."

"Oh, well, nice to meet you," Sam greeted.

"Nice to meet you too. I want to be a hunter when I grow up."

"Oh you do? I don't know any kid who has ever wanted to live this life. Why do you aspire to be a hunter? You'll shorten your life span, it doesn't pay the bills, and you may never be able to settle down with a wife and kids," Mia replied.

"Penance," the boy answered.

"Penance for what?"

"I meet Mattie, and 'Aunt' Ari in Tir Na Nog. I had been in the castle for a year when Mathew took the chance to escape, and I went with them. I went into the never never with my little sister, and left without her. She was killed three months before I escape because I couldn't get her to stop crying. I got frustrated with her needy whining, and yelled her. One of the faery lords happened by and saw my dilemma. He gave me three minutes to calm her down, and I couldn't. For my failure he killed her."

By the time lunch was served, Sam was looking at the young boy with something close to respect. He was much more mature than his years, probably due to his rough childhood. He was polite and respectful, way more well behaved than any pre-teen Sam had ever meet. Eventually he excused himself for a few minutes to check on how his guardian was doing in the kitchen. When he returned he was trailing behind Ariana, carrying a large wooden lunch tray that was loaded with plates of sandwiches, teapot, tea cups, a carafe full of what was assumed to be coffee, a bowl of sugar, and a small cup of cream.

Once the boy had settled the tray on the coffee table, he proceeded to serve everybody. After Sam and Mia were taken care of he poured his aunt a cup of tea, carefully placing everything in front of her so that she would know where everything was before she reached for it. The first few minutes of conversation was about how good the sandwiches were, and inquires on whether the coffee was strong enough. After Ariana finished her first sandwich half, and sipped her tea for a little bit, she straightened her posture in a way that said, "let's get down to business," and began to speak.

"Before we get this shindig started, and talk about our plan of attack, I'd like to tell you a little about myself… I was practically born blind. I was a "pre-me," and a lot of things went south with my health. I almost didn't make it, and if my medical care had been left in my father's hands I wouldn't have survived. My parents were told the odds of me growing up normal, and they weren't good. My father was all for letting nature take its course, but my mother fought. She fought with my father, she fought against the doctors, and she helped me fight the odds. Fate blessed me with small miracles, like, I didn't have to live life with a compromised immune system. My only curse was the blindness. Of course that was enough for my father to hate me my entire life. The medical bills were enough for him to have to file bankruptcy, and he didn't like the fact that he had to be taught how to handle raising a blind child.

"My mother left him a few times, but she always came back. When I was ten, my father broke my arm. My mother was usually there to take my beatings for me, and when she wasn't she always instructed me to stay in my room out of the way. The day my arm was broke, my father had gotten really drunk, and he picked a fight. Hiding in my room wasn't an option. When my mother packed up my things that night she promised that it was for real, that Daddy had finally crossed the line.

"My mother hadn't planned the whole running away part very well. She never did, which is why we always returned home after a few weeks. This time, though, had to be for real, so she tried to make it work. We moved from seedy motel to seedy motel, until my mother was able to find a place willing to allow her to rent, despite her horrible credit. It wasn't in the best neighborhood. Nine months after moving out of my father's house, my mother was killed during a robbery of the local convenience store. I was sent back to my father.

"With my mother gone, there was no one there to protect me from my father's wrath. Not only was I the reason for his financial problems, he blamed me for my mother's death. He was more responsible than I was, of course, but that's a drunk's reasoning for you…

"When I was ten, my teacher called social services on my father. He played nice for the visit, and for a few months he kept his hands off me. We thought that everything would be okay. We thought we had convinced the social worker that we were just another happy family. When he saw a police cruiser pull up outside, he started beating me. I guess he figured that they had already caught him, so there was no harm in beating me one last time. I think he had meant to kill me, but the cop broke in the door, and shot him before he could finish me off.

"The faery nobleman came for me the next day at the hospital. It wasn't hard for me to be convinced to go with them. He used glamour to ease the pain that the medications couldn't completely cure. I was just about to call the nurse for some more anyway. He even chased away the queasiness that came from using morphine. He said that if I was willing to go with him, he would take me to a place where there would be no more pain. I would be cherished there. He was right. As I was healing they gave me whatever I wanted. Instead of morphine they gave me a thimble worth of faery wine, and what a trip that was!

"Mathew Murphy could never figure out why the sandman would keep one child, or dispose of another. Of course one of the reasons for disposing of a child is because once they reach full maturity, the magic in their blood starts to dissipate, making it impossible for the transformation to be completed. The Sandman is only allowed up once per century to make two new children, so he goes through many potential candidates. I doubt Mathew told you why he keeps children, with the way he treats information as if it were gold, but he keeps us to feed off our blood. He eats normal food, like any other human, but our tainted blood keeps the monster inside alive.

"When Mathew made his escape, I struck a faery's bargain with him, and he agreed to take me with him. I knew that I was going to turning fifteen soon. Women never make it past their sixteenth birthday. Even though I was chosen to stay year after year, I knew the Sandman wasn't going to keep me for much longer. I wasn't turned into a monster, but now, thanks to his blood, I can see, but only in the dark. When I don't have guests, I usually keep the drapes closed. I can't see all the pretty colors but I am still thankful for the ability."

"I thought your magic was suppose to dissipate with age. The ability to see seems to me part of your powers," Sam pointed out.

"Oh, they have. I use to be as strong as any faery, stronger than most, actually. If you had meet me when I was fresh out of the never, I could have picked you up with one hand, and throw you across the room. My strength has gone back to normal human levels. Some things, though, apparently are permanent. Like you, Mr. Winchester, I can't outgrow the taint in my blood."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know exactly what I mean Sam. I am queen of the exiles, faeries do my bidding here. My blood protects them from the iron, and without it they would slowly disappear. I do my homework. I have eyes and ears in Missouri. Of course only pixies are foolish enough to risk spying on a dungeon monster, but I have quite a large swarm at my disposal. I knew he was here, the moment he stepped in this dimension, and I knew when your brother picked up his scent.

"Then why didn't you come off your thrown to help earlier," Mia asked pissed off that this woman had sat by and done nothing.

"Like I said, madame, I'm not as strong as I use to be, if you hadn't noticed, I'm at a slight disadvantage," Ari said, waving her her hand in her own face to point out that she was blind, "and if I had entered his domain he would know that I was there, and track me down in an instant. Unless I learn, otherwise, I'm assuming that he wants me dead! Both Mathew and I know about your Sealie hunt with Mike. I knew that you would come to me for help, it has been foretold. I saw no point in endangering myself. It would have been a waste of my life, and your brother would have died along with all _his_ other victims. Now, lets talk strategy."

Nobody liked the plan, because their was a strong possibility that Ari could get hurt along the way, but it seemed to be the only option. As Ari kept stressing, faeries could be faster and stronger than most thought possible. The Sandman had an added bonus of being protected by his sand powers. The plan was that Arianna would lure the monster in close enough to stab him with an iron weapon that she had made herself. The weapon works like a sharp umbrella. She would stab the sandman with it, and press a button to open up the arms, and then duck out of the way. The handle would have faery spider silk attached to it. The other end of the strand would be attached to a crank that would pull him into his awaiting cage.

Once the plans were made, and the arguments were extinguished, Ari got up out of her chair and said, "get your hunting stuff. I know a shortcut that will get us to Missouri in an hour, but its not car friendly. I'll show you the way. When we get there, set up the trap in the clearing that I showed you."

"I still dont get how we're going to get close enough to the sandman to do any good," Mia said as Ari started shoving all their gear in a trunk that seemed to be bottomless.

"My escape will seem like a personal betrayal. When he kills me, he'll want to do it slowly. He'll be coming to me, and he'll get real close."

"What about us? Won't he be wanting to attack us all?"

"I plan on calling up a storm as soon as we get there. For that we'll be stopping by an elemental friend's house. And I use the word friend loosely. She owes me a favor. Keep your eyes open, and if I tell you to run, do not hesitate. There are things in that world more dangerous than any monster this world has to offer. And please leave the talking to me you don't want to be tricked into owing a faery a favor."

"What about time? We don't have enough time to be wandering all over faery world," Sam pointed out.

"You worry too much Mr. Winchester. Time usually moves different in the never, and I have a spell that guarantees that it'll move slower there. I estimate that we'll spend a day in the never but only an hour or two will pass here. Ive been planning this for years."

When Ari finished packing the trunk she put her fingers to her mouth and let out an ear splitting whistle. Within seconds they heard sliding glass doors being opened in another part of the house, and these two burly guys came walking through the kitchen. Before Sam could get a proper look Are warned him not to look em in the face too much.

"Ogres will take it as a challenge, and squash you dead in a few seconds."

"Their ogres," Mia asked disbelievingly, "somehow I expected em to be bigger."

"Its called glamour darling. All fey can use it. In their natural state they would have a hard time fitting in the door. They would be green-gray in color and have tusks too."

One of the Ogres stopped, turned towards Sam and growled.

"Oscar! They are guests in my house, and you will not harm them while their under my protection."

"Hunter. Smell bad."

"I don't care. You will come to heal, or I'll make you will wish you were never born ogre."

With the threat from the exile queen the ogre who was called Oscar had no choice but to kneel down before her. Without her potions he would get sick and eventually die. So with no more fuss, he listened to her orders. He was to protect the prick who smelt like demon blood and his bitch too. He snarled at the tall human as he passed, carrying the queen's box. He couldn't wait until he could pass through the queen's secret passage. Once he was back home, he would be able to drop the glamour. Hopefully when he snarled at full height the human male would piss his pants.


End file.
